Preview – Derry City v St. Patrick’s Ath.
Derry City vs St. Patrick’s Ath. – Friday 3rd November 2023 – KO 7.45pm – Brandywell
SSE Airtricity League of Ireland – Premier Division
Match sponsored by Peak Environmental
Just goal difference separates Derry City and St Pats in second and third in the Premier Division table as the two sides bring the curtain down on their 2023 league season at the Brandywell on Friday night.
The visitors have the small matter of an FAI Cup final to look forward to after this, but Ruaidhri Higgins is in no doubt that they will also be very keen to claim the win that would see them leap-frog the hosts into the runners-up spot.
“They’ll come here looking to win, of course they will, and they have that cup final coming up too, so it should be an interesting game” he said.
“We want to finish on a high and claim the three points that would cement second place and send our supporters home happy.
“I have to be honest though and say that it has been hugely frustrating over the past couple of weeks that we haven’t been right in the mix for winning the title.
“We’ve left too many points behind and there have been real lessons learned that we will take with us going forward.
“Finishing second and a good European run will give us something to build on and we have to focus on that.
“If you look back you’ll see it took Rovers and Cork time to chase down Dundalk. We know what we have to do to take it to the next level and we will take those lessons with us going forward.”
On the team front, the City boss has had very few weekends this season where he didn’t have injury concerns and its the same again for Friday.
“Shane McEleney is out for this one and Adam O’Reilly is a major doubt while Michael Duffy, Jamie McGonigle and Danny Mullen are all carrying knocks.
“We’ll give them as much time as possible before deciding on our starting eleven but either way I’m confident we’ll have a team out who are well capable of winning the game.
“It’s a big night for us because we want to send our supporters home happy, and looking forward to the start of the new season.”
The game kicks off at 7.45pm and will be streamed live on LOITV.
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