Derry City manager Kenny Shiels isn’t taking tomorrow night's game for granted despite St. Patricks Athletic’s poor start to the season. “Definitely not, I watched them beat Shamrock Rovers, they put in a great performance,” Shiels said. “You know
Derry City manager Kenny Shiels isn’t taking tomorrow night's game for granted despite St. Patricks Athletic’s poor start to the season.
“Definitely not, I watched them beat Shamrock Rovers, they put in a great performance,” Shiels said.
“You know the qualities that they have and they play good football, they build it out from the back, I think them and ourselves are consistent on that and we want to play properly, we want to entertain our home supporters and give them something to be proud of and we haven’t achieved that yet, but we will do,” Shiels added.
This will be the Candystripes third game in a week and Shiels admitted that he has had to change it up to ensure that the players can cope with the demand.
“Yeah, you obviously can’t work as hard, in such a volume, between the games, but we are looking at being more tactical and how we approach and have the performance within the team to know what their job is and going to do it properly and doing it professionally.
“We are always talking like that, those are the words we use, to be professional, and approach each game and it’s merits and work to beat the opponent.
“We’ll always try to win the game and make the game, you know we don’t go to defend, we go to try and make the game,” Shiels explained.
Barry McNamee returned for the Candystripes on Tuesday night against Limerick and he helped his side come from behind to secure a point at Maginn Park and Shiels was delighted to get a key part of his setup back in the fold.
“It was very important, he is very important to us, he is one our top players,” Shiels admitted.
The Foylesiders go into Friday’s game against St. Patricks Athletic without a win in six games and Shiels could have a number of players back in the squad for the fixture.
“We are hoping to get Ronan (Curtis) back in the team and Aaron McEneff very soon and Rory Holden very soon, you know these are keys players to us and if we can get them back it gives us a better chance.”
