Derry, who went into the game three points behind a Shels side who also have a game in hand, were the better side in the opening spell at Tolka but the game changed when Derry defender Sam Todd was sent off, with almost an hour to play, for a second bookable offence. Higgins maintains that, if it had been eleven against eleven, his side may have gained the upper hand but he was still proud of the effort from his team. "I found out that we are up for it, I found out that we are made of the right stuff, and let's be honest, there's more than two teams involved in it.
Anyone who thinks any different is wrong, so it makes it very interesting and exciting but I have no doubt after this result that we are up for the challenge,” Higgins said. "I thought 11 v 11, we should have been two or three up, we were the better team, the dominant team and we looked like we were in the ascendancy and then we get a man sent off, obviously your plan flips on its head and you have to become more of a counter-attacking threat. But I am really proud of the players, we saw two sides of us, at 11 v 11 we played some beautiful football, 11 v 10 we rolled our sleeves up, showed proper commitment, proper desire, and thoroughly deserved a point and over the 95 minutes had the better chances.
"I am proud of the players, to a man, they poured their guts out on the pitch, it gives you real pride and you believe in the group as they've given absolutely everything to make sure we left with a minimum of a point and I felt we deserved three,” he added, as he again tried to lift the cloud that has hung over Derry since their dismal European loss to a side from Gibraltar. “We’ve been really good in recent weeks apart from one disastrous performance, you know the one I’m talking about. We’ve won six of our last eight before Monday.
We played football like that in the first half hour. We recovered after going out of Europe, putting in an outstanding performance against St Pat’s. I know the European thing keeps getting brought up but our displays bar that one performance have been really good,” he said.
While refereeing is under the spotlight this week after Sligo Rovers objected to a baffling, game-defining, penalty decision in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to St Patrick’s Athletic, Higgins said he had no problem with the calls by Damian MacGraith to send off Todd for his two yellow card offences but claimed there was “double standards” when an opposing player avoided the same fate. "I have no issue with the sending off, but it's double standards. What I do have an issue with is, John Martin, one of their players, Paul McMullen does him in a one on one going into the final third, a promising attack, John Martin brings him down, and the punishment's not the same.
And he's brought off 30 seconds later, that's my issue,” he said...
