Derry City manager Ruaidhri Higgins has confirmed that Cameron Dummigan will miss the next number of games having picked up a foot injury this week.
That leaves the Candystripes travelling to the Belfield Bowl to play UCD on Friday night minus Dummigan, Eoin Toal, Ronan Boyce plus the two long-term absentees- Michael Duffy and Ciaron Harkin.
The Limavady man refused to be too downbeat though and suggested that there were openings now for squad players to come in and stake their claim.
“Caoimhin Porter came in against Drogheda last week and was superb, and he will certainly get plenty of game time in the coming weeks” he said.
“It’s far from ideal but that’s football and we just have to get on with it.”
“Recent results have been frustrating but we’ve lost the same numbers of games this season as the league leaders.”
“We’ve drawn too many times despite dominating the vast majority of them.”
“We need to be more clinical in front of goal and we know that.”
The Candystripes were certainly clinical when these sides met at the Brandywell, with a Jamie McGonogle-inspired City hitting the students for seven.
Ruaidhri Higgins is reading nothing into that however and insists three points is all that matters on Friday night.
“They’ve really bounced back after that and we’ve prepared for nothing less than a difficult game on the road.”
Kick off is 7.45pm.
