'Derry City Football Club have always looked after their players very well' - Kenny Shiels

Shiels made the comments as this week Dapo Kayode became the seventh - Conor Agnew, Armin Aganovic, Chris Turner, David Hopkirk, John Cofie and Nathan Boyle - member of the squad to leave the club.

Shiels' shallow squad were at training this morning before tomorrow afternoon's league clash at champions Cork City (KO 3pm), a game he knows his players will need to be up for right from the off.

“We need to lift our game massively and it’s important that we start very, very quickly because there’s an apathy forming and we have got to get it out of the system," he said.

“So we have to go down to Cork and give a good performance and get something from the game, we have to have positivity, we have to be confident and we have got to start lifting everybody. We have been trying to do that and there has been a lot of stuff about players leaving and stuff like that, but that’s private.

“It’s a fantastic club to play for and Derry City Football Club have always looked after their players very well, so the club are totally exempt from any blame or any rumours, so basically we are lifting things here and we need to get ourselves up and at it."

The Derry boss is delighted to welcome back striker Rory Patterson from suspension for tomorrow's encounter.

"Rory back is a big plus for us, as it will help us immensely, because we lost that linkage in the last third to get the team up and get further forward and we certainly missed him on Friday night.

"I'm hoping the rest may help Rory and everyone else is available again, Eoin Toal should come back in after his slight back problem."