SSE Airtricity League Premier Division
Sligo Rovers v Derry City (Thursday, 7.45pm)
DERRY City new signing Jacob Davenport could feature against Sligo Rovers on Thursday.
The midfielder, who joined the Candystripes a few weeks ago, has been training with his new team-mates and boss Ruaidhrí Higgins says he expects the Englishman to be in the squad.
Higgins confirmed that that squad will be similar to the one which saw off Drogheda United last Friday night, with striker Colm Whelan again expected to be involved.
“We have a good, healthy squad at the minute. Obviously one or two absentees, but the squad won’t change too much, I wouldn’t imagine, between last Friday and this Thursday,” said Higgins.
“I would imagine Jacob will be on the bench. You can see he’s getting a wee bit sharper every day, which is great, and I’d like to think he’ll make the squad on Thursday.
“He only came in last week. We played an in-house 11v11 on Sunday, which will be beneficial for him and we’ll see possibly towards the weekend we might get another in-house 11v11 to try and get minutes into people.
“You can’t replicate real competitive games but it gives people a feeling for it. We have quite a settled team at the minute, which is great, which means there’s no mad rush to get him in the team, so we’ll get him fit and ready when the time comes.
“We’ll see how the game pans out. We have really good options in attacking areas and we’re blessed now with real attacking quality and as I said we’ll see how the game goes and what we feel we need at any point in the game, but again he’ll be in the squad, all being well.”
The Foylesiders go into the game aiming to secure their fifth win on the bounce and confidence wise, team wise, morale wise, everything must be on a high at the minute.
“Aye, criticism after the last game against Sligo when it was actually the second-half performance was as good as we’ve played all year,” explained Higgins.
“But since that, we’ve done a really good winning run and we’re delighted with it, but that’s all it is.
“We’ve put some points on the board, but we need to continue to do that and remain focused and understand that Thursday is a really big game for us.
“The results have been good, but performances have been good as well, which is really important and if you keep performing you’ll pick up points, so we just need to focus on ourselves and forget about outside influences and concern ourselves with what we can control and keep pushing on.”
Sligo has been a difficult place to go to for the Brandywell men in recent seasons, with Ronan Boyce’s late strike securing a 2-1 win in City’s last victory at the Showgrounds way back in 2021.
John Russell’s men are also in form, having seen off champions Shamrock Rovers last Friday night, so Higgins is expecting another tough evening.
“It’s irrelevant really now,” stated the Limavady man. “We’re in a moment where we have good momentum, we’re playing well, so what’s happened over the previous three or four times down there is really not my concern, it’s about what we can do on Thursday night and if we keep continuing to play the way that we’re playing, then I’ve no doubt we’ll win the game.
“They’ve had a couple of good results recently, they’ve got good players and they’ve kept hold of (Ed) McGinty, kept hold of (Oliver) Denham, so I think they’ll get stronger as the season goes on.
“They’ve some good players and they’ll be buoyed by the result of the weekend but we’re in good form and I know that if we continue to apply ourselves the way that we’ve been doing, then we can win the game.
“But we’ll approach the game to try and win it. We have started games well recently, bar Bohemians maybe, but the last four, five, six games we’ve started really well.
“We need to try and get the upper hand early on in the game and wrestle control and see if we can produce some of the attacking play that we’ve produced in recent weeks, while also being mindful of their attacking threats as well.”
Elsewhere on Thursday, leaders Shelbourne travel to Drogheda United; Shamrock Rovers host Dundalk; St Patrick’s Athletic make the trip to Waterford and Galway United face Bohemians.
In the First Division, Wexford take on leaders Cork City at Turner’s Cross; UCD have home advantage over Athlone Town; Treaty United face Cobh Ramblers and Bray Wanderers host Longford Town.
