DERRY CITY: Kenny Shiels wary of newly-promoted Wexford Youths

The Derry City boss reckons Wexford’s position in the table is misleading having came so close to holding champions, Dundalk to a draw while Bohemians had to fight back to earn a 3-3 draw at Dalymount last weekend.

So Wexford come into tomorrow’s game at Ferrycarrig Park on the back of those encouraging displays.

And having already fallen victim to newly promoted Finn Harps this season, Shiels is weary of the threat posed by Shane Keegan’s men who, he feels, will be hugely motivated to bring the ‘Candy Stripes’ back down to earth after three straight wins.

“Wexford have done well,” said Shiels. “They’ve taken Dundalk to the last five minutes. They got a 3-3 draw away to Bohs which is no mean achievement. And they’ve been very unlucky at Shamrock Rovers where they dominated that match I’m told.

“So these are things we’re aware of and we know they will be a difficult opponent.

“It’s like any other game in this league - it’s going to be tough,” he continued. “You have to go and work to get a result and Saturday’s game will be no different.

“We want to keep the momentum going. We’re just approaching this game like we have the last four - with a view to try and win it.

“We know it’s going to be difficult as the other four games have been.”

Shiels singled out Wexford’s former Ipswich Town midfielder, Paul Murphy as one to watch but prefereed to focus on the strengths of his own side.

“We’ve got good players ourselves so we’ve got to be optimistic,” he said. “You view every game with the same approach and isolate that particular game and make sure it’s a committed performance.

“If we can produce the same commitment we’ve shown over recent games, then we’ll do fine.

“They’ll think they have a chance of getting a result and you can’t blame them for that.

“I’m sure they will go out with the intention of getting their first victory. We’ve already lost a game against one promoted team. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen twice.”

Defensive Reshuffle on cards

Shiels could be forced into a defensive reshuffle for tomorrow night’s match after skipper, Ryan McBride limped off the training pitch on Monday with an injured knee.

Dean Jarvis (groin) is also rated doubtful but the Derry boss will give the defensive duo every chance as he’s reluctant to make changes to the back four which has played in all four of the league games so far.

Aaron McEneff (back), who came off the bench to good effect against Galway last Friday, is also carrying a knock while match winner, Nathan Boyle will give Shiels something of a selection headache, so he could change things about.

“We could be forced into making changes,” said Shiels. “Ryan McBride hasn’t trained since Monday. He had to come off the training ground on Monday so he is rated doubtful.

“We don’t want to dwell on it. We want to keep the continity and cohesion in the team or stay as near to that as possible but we’ll see what develops.”