Daniel Kelly hoping to heap pressure on Shels as Derry City eye top spot

​Derry boss Ruaidhrí Higgins has been publicly declaring he's not interested in looking at the league standings or the results of rival clubs until there's less than five games to go in the campaign.

However, Kelly broke ranks when admitting it would be ‘nice’ to be looking down at Shelbourne this weekend - even if it's just for 24 hours!

Kelly reckons going top of the pile for the first time since March 4th would provide the Candy Stripes with a psychological edge over Shelbourne who he'll watch with interest as they take on Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds on Saturday.

"People say they don't look at the table but everyone looks at the table," said the Dubliner. "Whether it's managers, players or coaches, everyone looks at the table so, listen, if we're top of the table - even if it's just for a week or just over the weekend, it would be nice to see.

"But there's still a long way to go and we need to just take it game by game. We've been in really good form and coming out of the Shels game everyone is positive. So it's all to play for."

Shelbourne have been leading the pack for an incredible 159 days! With just 10 games to go for Derry, it would be the perfect time to get their noses in front.

"You want to be top from the start of the season until the end. But if you're top at the end that's all that matters. We'll keep doing what we're doing but Shels have been an outstanding team this year and have been hard to catch to be fair.

"It's only three points in it and hopefully if we do our business this weekend, we'll be watching their game against Sligo on Saturday with interest.

"It's still early doors but we're in a good mindset and everyone is confident."

Kelly won the league title with Dundalk in 2019 but the Lilywhites are in real danger of losing their Premier Division status they’ve held since 2008.

Dundalk suffered a bitter blow last week when losing 2-0 to Galway United but Kelly is still friendly with his ex-teammates and reckons the club is 'too big to go down'.

"They're too big of a club to go down with too big of a fanbase. Once they get their stuff done this year and hopefully stay up it will be a wakeup call to get everything sorted off the pitch, the facilities, the pitch and they will likely get a few players in and I'm sure they will be grand.

"I'm definitely surprised [at Dundalk's predicament]. It was hard to leave Dundalk. I thought when I was leaving they would be there or thereabouts the European spots.

"It hasn't gone to plan and there's been a lot of stuff off the pitch that's affected things on the pitch and managerial changes.

"They've got a great manager in place now and he's put his own stamp on it. I think over the last few weeks they've played a lot better and picked up decent results.

"They have good characters and people who have won leagues the likes of [Robbie] Benson, Mounts [John Mountney], [Andy Boyle] Boyler, [Daryl Horgan] Horgs. So there's lads there who will have the know-how and I'm sure they will be coming up here with a fighting chance, trying to take three points off us."

Derry have made Brandywell into a real fortress this season losing just twice.

Unbeaten in their last nine home matches in all competitions, Derry are hoping to make it six Brandywell wins on the bounce and this one against a team who have won just once on their travels this term.

"We need to just focus on ourselves and get back to winning ways. I know we had a good result against Shels considering we were down to 10 men but we're in good form and the Brandywell has been really good for us this year.

"I think we have the best home record in the league so hopefully the fans can get behind us and we can get three big points.

"I think at the Brandywell especially where we like to get after teams and press and once we get that right, especially in the first few minutes teams don't like it and the fans get behind us.

"The last few months the Brandywell has been a real fortress and we just need to keep delivering. “There's still a long way to go but coming into the business end of the season we're hoping to keep our run going."