Derry City remain unbeaten but winless run at Sligo Showgrounds continues

The Showgrounds has certainly evolved into a bogey-ground for the Candy Stripes and despite donning their new blue away strip for their first away trip of the season, nothing has changed in that regard.

Derry have now failed to win in their last five attempts at the venue and their cause wasn't helped by the loss of two of their most experienced players in the first half in Cameron Dummigan and Patrick McEleney.

"It's difficult when you lose two key figures of that experience and quality but the lads did really well when they came on and adapted," said Higgins "It was never going to be pretty, far from it. It was obviously a difficult surface and that.

"I just felt endeavour-wise and commitment was there but on a night like this it needed maybe a wee bit of individual brilliance to open up the door.

"Bar the Daniel Kelly chance at the end and Will Patching's shot from the edge of the box that [Ed] McGinty saves, we didn't create loads more. "Brian [Maher] didn't have a save to make either. It wasn't a great game of football, let's be honest. If anyone was going to win it I felt we were definitely the team that was going to get it over the line. Listen, we take a point and move on."This venue won't be a welcoming one for many teams this year and given St Pat's and Shamrock Rovers both lost on Friday night and the fact ALL TEN Premier Division clubs have now dropped points just two games in, Higgins' prediction this will be the most competitive league in recent memory appears on the money.

"It's an unbelievable stat. I felt when Galway and Waterford came up they would prove two very difficult opponents and it's proven that way already. There's a real spread of quality around the league and it's going to be a very interesting season that's for sure.

"We wanted to come here and win but I honestly believe, if you look at Sligo's recruitment and look from the back upwards, they've got McGinty, Connor Malley, [Ellis] Chapman, Max Mata, Simon Power, I think they've recruited absolutely brilliantly and you can see the changes now they can make from their bench that maybe the couldn't have made last year.

"This is going to be a tough venue, I've no doubt about that. You would've liked the pitch to have been a small bit better and make it more conducive to a good game but it is what it is. We dug in but I would've liked a bit more quality.

"We got into enough good areas in the second half in particular to make something happen but we move on and we'll get better at that as the season evolves."

A clean sheet was a bonus and the performance of Sam Todd alongside the excellent Mark Connolly shows the strength in depth in this Derry squad.

"Sam was excellent tonight. Sam was really, really good. Mark ,really good. We went a wee bit more physical tonight because I thought it was going to be that type of game. Defensively our lads stood up to the challenge no problem.

"We didn't give up any chances at all. We had enough set pieces as well to go and nick one but you have to find ways of winning these types of games. It's four points from the opening two which is acceptable and we try and take a big three points next week at home to St Pat's.

"The first half was cagey and both teams had wee periods but I felt the second half, we were definitely the team in the ascendant and got into enough good areas to maybe produce a wee bit more quality. I would like to think we would improve that end of it as the season moves on."