Danny Mullen relishing Derry City strike partnership with Pat Hoban

​Ruaidhrí Higgins will have a welcome dilemma on his hands heading to Munster and it'll be interesting to see if the City boss keeps faith in the 4-4-2 formation which worked a treat in the 3-1 win over St Patrick's Athletic on Monday night.

Mullen [5] and Hoban [8] have netted 13 goals between them after the opening 12 matches - an impressive statistic which was last achieved by a Derry City strike partnership back in 1987/88 when Owen Da Gama and Johnny Speak were leading the line.

Scotsman Mullen is in confident mood heading to Waterford for the first time in his City career after a brilliant brace against Pat's and he hopes he can continue his double act with Hoban this weekend now the ex-Dundalk hitman has fully recovered from injury.

"I'm looking forward to it on the back of that result on Monday," said the former Partick Thistle striker. "Hopefully we can go down there and put in a good performance and get another three points.

"We're confident at the moment and it's always good to have both strikers scoring goals at the same time. We're going to need everybody in the season but long may that continue."

He was playing second fiddle to Hoban at the start of the season but he scored some big goals when called upon including that double against Pat's on Monday and a stoppage time winner against the Dubliners earlier in the season.

He feels he's improving with the more games under his belt and hopes he can strike up a fruitful combination with Hoban over the coming months with fans already seeing signs the pair complement each other's game.

"I'm feeling good at the moment and obviously the game-time helps. I'm getting a good run of games now and putting the ball in the back of the net also helps but I'm really enjoying my football.

"We like to play with each other and in training we know where each other is and getting another body close to you always helps. So it was good to try that and obviously both of us scored.

"You just have to keep chipping away and when the goals come it's obviously good."

Mullen has never been to the RSC before but he's looking forward to playing on a decent grass pitch as Derry aim to record back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

"It's a place I've not been to but I've heard the pitch is good and hopefully we can get the ball down and play and put in a good performance. It will be a tough game, it always is but if we do things right and apply our game the way we know we can then we'll be fine.

"We need to get a run going and hopefully that's started with a good win against Pat's on Monday. Hopefully we can back it up. “We have two away games and that's where we need to be better. We're normally pretty good at home this year but when we're away we have to make sure we pick up more points. Hopefully that starts on Friday."