TWO goals inside 50 seconds of mayhem threatened to revive Dundalk’s season in style and leave Derry City sick - in more ways than one.
But Cian Kavanagh scored a late Candystripes equaliser to end their-two game losing streak while the draw snapped the Lilywhites’ own run of three straight defeats.
It came at a price though, as Andy Boyle was injured in the warm-up and Greg Sloggett left Oriel Park on crutches after sustaining a serious first-half ankle injury.
O’Donnell was livid and feels it is no coincidence that the only two Premier Division clubs - Dundalk and Derry - who use artificial pitches have the longest injury lists.
“It’s gone beyond a point of not being a great surface to watch on, it’s actually injuring players,” said the Dundalk boss.
“There’s no give in it. You go up for a header and if you don’t land square on the ball of your foot, you’re doing your ankle ligaments or doing your knee.
“All I know is we get a lorry load of injuries and Derry get a lot of injuries. I'd just be worried about the injury count.
“We're losing a few bodies now and you see Derry do as well. Is it a coincidence?.”
Not long after Sloggett’s injury, Derry took the lead when Ben Doherty curled a low shot to the far corner only to lose Jordan McEneff to illness moments later.
He vomited on the pitch after feeling dizzy and the home fans’ loudest cheer of that grim first half was reserved for the young volunteer tasked with cleaning it up.
On he raced as if his life depended on it, armed with a bucket and sweeping brush to do the needy - but Dundalk proved they had the stomach for a second-half fight.
First, Robbie Benson’s glancing header off a Keith Ward cross evaded Brian Maher’s clutches and then Dundalk went in front straight from Derry’s restart.
Sadou Diallo’s attempted passback to Ciaran Coll was undercooked and Johannes Yli-Kokko pounced and steered home after bearing down on the Candystripe goal.
Derry boss Higgins couldn’t believe it and said: “They hadn't had a chance in the game up until that minute and they scored two goals - it's incredible.”
Finally, Oriel Park had found its voice as the sunny, sedate Sunday afternoon sunshine led contributed to a flat atmosphere up to that point.
But on the fightback, O’Donnell said: “It wasn't that I was unhappy from the first-half, we were honest but it was more a case of 'where's our belief now'?
“Are we going to let this game, on a nice day and dry pitch meander out.
“Irrespective of how the game finished it was more about body language, what are we bringing to the table and I was delighted with that.”
O’Donnell added: :When you come off three defeats, I just wanted to see a good feeling and regardless of the result, I know what we’re about after that second-half.”
Still, Dundalk’s joy was short-lived as Kavanagh’s looping header with 11 minutes to go, secured a point for Derry before Wasiri Williams saw red for a foul on Ollie O’Neil.
Title-contenders Derry arrived here on the back of home defeats to Drogheda United and Bohemians but Higgins feels too much was made of it.
“Aye, the losing run!,” he said dryly. “We had four bad days and we're on this big losing run.
“Because we lost a couple, we could have laid down and rolled over but we showed character as this group always does. These players' character shouldn't be in question.
“Cian Kavanagh's is a world class header, an amazing header and over the course of the game, we were the better team.”
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