Derry must take chance to put early distance to champs

It’s exactly a year since Derry City secured their statement win at Tallaght and they’ll need a similar outcome tonight to halt the march of Shamrock Rovers to a record fifth successive title.

The Hoops have again started slowly, one point taken from the games against Dundalk and Shelbourne, yet are renowned for eating into leads built up by their rivals.

Victory for Derry tonight would swell the gap to the champions to nine points.

Given their flakiness after ending a six-year wait for victory at the Dublin venue last year, it's essential to achieve that in only their fourth game of the season.

While Ruaidhrí Higgins’s Candystripes were coming from behind to beat FAI Cup champions St Patrick’s Athletic on Friday, Rovers were training within the indoor confines of the Abbotstown dome. Heavy snowfall on the east coast led to an early postponement of their planned fixture against Drogheda United.

“Derry have invested heavily in their group over the last two years,” Rovers boss Stephen Bradley correctly pointed out about the expectations attached to their opponents.

“When they sign someone like Patrick Hoban, like they did in the off-season, he'll bring goals to the team. We know it's going to be a difficult game.” 

Higgins doesn’t view the disparity in workload as a negative heading to Tallaght. “Rovers will be fresh from having their match been called off, but listen, we’ve played Friday, Monday, Friday for a long time now, so it’s nothing that the players aren’t used to.

"Hopefully the momentum gathered from Friday night will stand us in good stead going into this one.” 

Derry remain without Sadou Diallo, Patrick McEleney and Cameron Dummigan.

Similarly, injury deprives the meeting of last year’s top two the presence of