DERRY City manager Kenny Shiels has called on fans to come out support the team tonight, Friday, July 27, as his side taken on St Pat’s Athletic at the Brandywell in the SSE Airtricity Premier Division (kick off 7.45 pm)
City get a respite from their travels over the next few weeks, with the first of four home games for the Candystripes Friday night, when St Pats visit the Brandywell.
The Candy Stripes City have a busy schedule with a League Cup semi final and the start of the FAI Cup over the next month, but will be looking to get some type of consistency back into their form over the next few home games.
City beat the Saints 2-1 at home earlier in the season before losing out 5-2 in a free flowing game at Inchicore back in May.
With only 10 games left in the 2018 Airtricity Season, it is imperative that the Candystripes start to find a bit of form in order to close the gap to the European spots.
Seven of those ten games will be at the Brandywell in the league and Shiels will be hoping that his side can rediscover the form that they showed at home earlier in the season.
Shiels has no fresh injury concerns ahead of the 5th v 6th match-up, although Nicky Low remains sidelined with an abdominal problem.
Rory Hale is also available having served a one game suspension.
The Derry boss was obviously delighted with the performance in Minsk but will be looking to bounce back from Monday nights defeat at Cork.
The St Pats game takes on added significance given that just three points separate the two teams and the manager issued a rallying call to City supporters “We’d love to get the momentum of support back heading into the crucial part of the season.”
“It’s so important for the players to have that backing and we’ll be doing everything in our power to give them the best performance we can.”
The visitors have been out of form themselves as of late and went on a long win-less run after beating City at Inchicore.
Liam Buckley has also identified that there are 30 points still to play for and he is also targeting a win which could see them jump above the Candystripes.
“We are one apiece against Derry this year,” says Buckley.
“We had a great win at home and then were so unfortunate in the Brandywell earlier this season. They have just come off a good performance in Europe so we know to expect a really difficult game from them.”
Finally, the club has confirmed that central defender Niall Logue has joined Finn Harps on loan until the end of the season.
The manager was keen to get the player as much game time as possible and will be monitoring his progress over the coming weeks.
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