A Derry City player has said the reason the team was able to beat St. Patrick's Athletic on Friday was because the players felt a sense of relief after going public with the financial situation at the club.
The player who did not want to be named said the article, which appeared in Friday's ‘DerryJournal’ “was like a weight off our shoulders."
"When we played St. Pat's on Friday night we were all very relaxed," said the player. "The situation at the
club has been well documented but when we went to the press it was like a weight off our shoulders. I think it played a major part in us beating St. Pat's, we were all delighted not to have lost a fifth consecutive match.
He added: "The board asked us in previous meetings to keep what was going on in house. We agreed to do that but what happened in the last few days was the last straw and we had to go to the media.
"Every player attended the meeting with the journalist who wrote the article. Some people are trying to claim that it is an agenda being driven by Dublin players but that's not the case. Every players supported what appeared in the local press on Friday.
"We feel let down by the board and that's why our story appeared in the paper and on the radio. We were backed into the corner."
The player went on say that he was frustrated by the reaction from some of the fans and asked if they were offered pay rises in their own places of work would they turn it down?
"The players seem to be getting the brunt of the anger from the fans," he said. "Some people think that the players are to blame but I think that had certain people been honest and up front from the start, then we would not be in this position.
"The fans are having a go at the players because of the wages they are on, but at the end of the day, the board agreed a budget and they agreed to pay the contracts. Let's be realistic about this, if a working man was offered a pay rise, is he going to turn it down? I don't think so."
As a result of Derry City's serious financial difficulties rumours that the players would strike on the last day of the season began to circulate in recent weeks.
"That's total rubbish," he said. "I can tell you now that not one player has even mentioned the word strike. We are all going to fulfil our contractual agreements with the club and we will play the last two games of the season."
