ARTHUR DUFFY reports

That said, Delaney could figure if regular full-back, Stephen Gray, fails to get through a late fitness test on a thigh strain with Mark McChrystal expected to retain his place in the ‘Candy Stripes’ defence.

Commenting on McChrystal’s stylish performance against Pat Fenlon’s men, Kenny praised the contribution of the 24-year-old centre-half who had struggled with injury at the start of the current campaign.

“I was pleased with Mark’s performance against Bohemians last week. He played very well and he was the only change from the team which defeated Bray 4-0.

“Clive returns from suspension and will rejoin the squad, but we’ve a doubt over the fitness of Stephen Gray who sustained a thigh strain and hasn’t trained this week.

“He will face a fitness test before the game while Owen Morrison is also doubtful. He came on for 20 minutes last week but picked up a heel injury which kept him out of the Dungannon game in midweek. He hasn’t trained either and is also a doubt for the Galway match,” confirmed Kenny.

With everyone else available, Kenny is not expected to make any drastic changes and, indeed, retain his new 4-2-1-3 formation which has reaped handsome dividends if recent displays are anything to go by.

When quizzed on his reasons for changing from his more accustomed 4-4-2 formation, Kenny felt his players were now ‘playing to their strengths’ in what is considered a particularly offensive formation.

“I think we are now playing to our strengths. We had operated a 4-4-2 system earlier in the season but after two scoreless draws against Galway and Sligo at the Brandywell and a 1-0 victory over Cobh without being fluent, we appeared to be a team that the opposition could stop playing.

“Since the change, we’ve beaten Bohs 4-1 in the League Cup, Bray 4-0 in the league and while we were disappointing with our finishing last week against Bohemians in the league, we did manage to create plenty of scoring chances.

“That’s the most important thing, our finishing wasn’t what it should have been and the Bohs keeper had a very good game, but we did play well.”

He considered tonight’s match against Galway as another major test but agreed that a victory would present the ‘Candy Stripes’ with a great boost as they prepared to host Shamrock Rovers next Friday night.

“Many people had Galway relegated before last week, but they drew with Sligo Rovers and then defeated Bray thanks to a late goal at the Carlisle Grounds last week. Those results have seen them move off the bottom of the table and they are now three points from safety. They will be confident after an away win and we must be very careful,” continued the Derry boss.

“We’re playing well at the moment, we’re passing the ball to good effect and we’re in good form going to Galway.