Midfielder Sadou Diallo feels Drogheda United treat their encounters against Derry City like it’s their cup final.
In their last three meetings against Kevin Doherty’s side, Derry have picked up five points, but all the games have been tight and the 25-year-old is expecting another tough test on Friday night.
“It’s like their cup final every time we play them,” he insisted.
“They make it tough for us, but we know what to expect from them and we just have to keep on our game on Friday.”
Derry return from the mid-season break sitting two points behind leaders Shelbourne and confidence is high as they have won their last three games in a row and Diallo wants another victory tomorrow evening at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
“Yeah we just have to keep the momentum going and keep our winning run going,” stated Diallo.
“All the boys have come back and trained well and we all can’t wait for Friday’s game against Drogheda and as I said hopefully we can keep that momentum going.
“The last 13 league games are all going to be tight.
“Every game is a big game really but we’ll be aiming for another win on Friday and take our run to four wins in a row.”
The talented midfielder knows that Ruaidhrí Higgins’ side are entering a big few weeks with matches in the league, FAI Cup and Europa Conference League all coming up, but the dressing room isn’t getting ahead of themselves.
“We are now in the last run-in for the season, we have 13 league games remaining and we just have to take every game one at a time,” he explained.
“We just focus on one game a-week and the next game is always going to be our biggest game and that kind of thing.
“We know we have a big month coming up with league games, European matches and the FAI Cup starting, but as I said we just need to look forward and focus on each game as it comes, starting with Drogheda on Friday night and then carry-on after that.”
The Candy Stripes added Jacob Davenport to their squad this week. The Englishman will be familiar to Diallo, as he played alongside him, and Will Patching, when the trio were at Manchester City’s Academy.
“Coming through the ranks at City it was us three in midfield,” Diallo confirmed.
“Jacob was skipper and Will was vice-captain and I was just the third man in there.
“But jokes aside, Jacob is a very good player, we know his qualities and hopefully he can show that once he’s available.
“Jacob is another midfielder, but he’s got a different profile to everyone else that we have and he has experience, having played in the Championship in England with Blackburn Rovers, so he has got good quality and I can’t wait to see him playing with the boys.”
