The top two sides in the Airticity Premier Division table come face to face at Tallaght on Friday night as the Candystripes take on Shamrock Rovers in front of ‘live’ RTE cameras (KO 7.45).
The visitors have been in top spot pretty much from day one this season, but two wins in the last week for the ‘Hoops’ coupled with Derry’s draws against Bohemians and St Pats have seen the tables turned heading into this weekend.
Ruaidhri Higgins cut a very frustrated figure after Monday’s game against a resolute and packed Pats’ defence, but he knows this is likely to be a very different contest.
“It has the makings of a brilliant game and we’re really looking forward to it” he began.
“They lost a couple of games in the early part of the season but they have have been on a fantastic run since then, as you would expect from a squad of that quality.”
That run has seen Rovers currently unbeaten in eleven games- 8 wins and 3 draws- although City have lost just once this season themselves.
“They have at least four players in the squad who have played at senior International level and there is quality everywhere. It’s why they are back-to-back champions of this league” he added.
“That said, we haven’t been doing too badly ourselves. We’re not going there to sit in, we’re going to try to win the game.”
“I was a bit disappointed with our performance against Bohs but we completely dominated on Monday night and just couldn’t get the ball in the net.”
“If we bring that level of performance to Tallaght on Friday we’ll give ourselves a real chance.”
On the downside for Derry, Patrick McEleney came off against St Pats having only come on as a substitute himself.
Manager Higgins admitted that both McEleney and central defender Cameron McJannet are both doubtful starters for the game.
