Derry City boss Ruaidhrí Higgins believes memorable Riga result is achievable

The Brandywell boss has told his players to grab the second leg encounter by the scruff of the neck and play with freedom.

Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, Higgins still believes that his side can have a memorable night in Latvia and hopes that the likes of Will Patching, Patrick McEleney, Jamie McGonigle and Co can play to their full potential.

"We have players who can open the door and score," insisted Higgins.

"As I said after the game on Thursday night, our away form is absolutely brilliant and I think we can do something that no one will really believe we can do.

"The players will go into the game with the pressure off them and that might suit us. They'll be playing on a really nice pitch, so we'll go there believing we can do something, which as I said no one else will believe we can do."

The Limavady man, who has happy memories from the Skonto Stadium as it was his cross that set-up Tam McManus up for Derry to secure a 1-1 draw against Skonto Riga way back in 2009, firmly believes that his squad can get a positive result and turn things around.

"I had good memories there as a player and hopefully there's more to come, but I think going out there we'll have no real expectations, as no one really expects us to do what I really believe we can do and that will suit our players," he added.

"I just want the players to go and take the shackles off and play with freedom, because I think when we do click we're a really good team."

Higgins, who also feels that the Skonto pitch will benefit his players, concedes that Derry can still have a big second half to the season.

"You get challenges in football and have ups and downs, so we are where we are and we just need to, I suppose, stick our chest out and believe what we're capable of and grab the game by the scruff of the neck," he explained. "Go out and express ourselves, play with freedom and see if we can produce something out of the ordinary."

Derry, who trained at Abbotstown in Dublin this afternoon before jetting off to Riga tomorrow morning, have a major injury worry over Ronan Boyce, but Matty Smith misses out complete after his dismissal last week.

"We have patched up teams now for a number of weeks," he added. "We've had players out and then when players have been fit, they've been carrying knocks, so it has just been patched up, but I think we're getting closer to getting players back.

"Obviously Ronan Boyce is a major doubt and Matty Smith is suspended, but we're getting there in terms of bodies and if we can add one or two, then that will help.

"I know we're talking about the Riga game, but I'm thinking about the Riga game and the rest of the season, but I feel we can have a really strong back end to the season and no better way to kick start that than to go over here and put in an absolutely memorable performance, which I know the players are capable of.

"Cameron (Dummigan) played last week but he hasn't really trained since, but he seems to be not too bad at all, so hopefully we can wrap him up and get him back out there.

"That has been a kind of feature over the last six/seven weeks, we haven't had major injuries, but we've had annoying injuries, we've been patching people up and then they've been unable to train and stuff like that, so I can't wait to get to a point where we have fully fit squad and everyone is bursting out of their skin, but look injuries are power of the course."