Declan Devine challenges Derry City to rediscover attacking flair against St Pat's

The Candy Stripes failed to register a single shot on target during Sunday's drab scoreless draw in the North West derby.

Before that Devine's troops needed two last gasp goals to break down a resolute Drogheda United in the FAI Cup at United Park.

However, Devine has full faith in his side's attacking prowess and expects them to deliver against a Saints side which has been toothless in front of goal during their past five matches

"There's definitely players that are creative players in our team," said Devine. "Earlier in the season I felt we lacked that.

"At the moment if you look across the forward line, we have people like (Walter) Figueira, (Ibrahim) Meite, (James) Akintunde, (Stephen) Mallon while Adam Hammill and Ciaron Harkin are attack-minded players. There's a lot of players there who could be chipping in with goals and that's what we're looking for.

"I'm not overly concerned because we have talent here and we have players who can light up any given night. For me personally the game just can't come quick enough.

"Everyone is desperate to hit a bit of form and have a few decent results on the spin. Two or three wins out of the next two or three games could put you in a real positive place."

With league matches quickly running out Devine has called on his players to fight for their shirt.

"We need people to grab a jersey and say 'well I can't be left out.' That's ultimately what it's about from now until the end of the season - people grabbing a jersey and saying 'right, that's mine and nobody else is getting it'.

"If we do that then I've no doubt these players have more ability in them than what we saw over the last couple of weeks."

Devine is delighted to get back to Brandywell where they won 3-1 against Cork City in their last home fixture on August 21st.

"There's no excuses for Sunday," he conceded. "The pitch was fine for Harps so it should be alright for us but the Brandywell is where we train on a daily basis.

"We've got to make sure anyone who comes to the Brandywell knows they;re in for a tough night.

"St Pat's at the Brandywell has always been a tough game. You can't read too much into our good victory down there because the way this league is going at the minute is every game has an element of surprise in it.

"We've got to make sure there's no surprises coming at us on Friday night.

"We've got to make sure that first and foremost we have ruthlessness about our approach to games. If anyone is going to take anything off us they have to be in for a fight for that.

"Irrelevant of what's at stake for other teams, we represent the city that loves its football and people who have backed this football club through thick and thin.

"We are in a privileged position and when we take to that pitch we have to make sure we're representing our fans."

The City boss must plan without the injured Gerardo Bruna (hip flexor), Joe Thomson (hamstring) and Ally Gilchrist (ankle), however the latter has resumed light training which was welcome news for Devine.

"Ally Gilchrist did a bit of running today on the pitch which was fantastic for us as he will be a big help moving forward. Everyone else is ready to go.

"I think there's players who won't start on Friday night who can have a huge influence coming off the bench. It will take complete focus from the group and a real desire not to suffer those moments we all had to endure over the last couple of days. It wasn't a very enjoyable weekend or start to the week.

"When you haven't performed it's very important you learn from it, put it in the back of your minds very quickly and move onto the next one. And we can't wait for the game on Friday."