Derry City midfielder Ciaron Harkin misses Waterford encounter

The Munster club informed the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) on Friday that due to a major electrical problem in the RSC, Monday evening’s game was in doubt.

However, after discussions involving all parties, the game was hastily rearranged for tonight and Higgins is only focused on trying to get a positive result despite the disruption.

“Preparation has been fine, listen it’s part and parcel and we just adapted and prepared in the best possible way to go down there and try to get a really good result,” he stated.

“Waterford have been excellent the last few months and they have signed really good players in the summer window and they are different now from the team we have faced previously.

“They have a real cutting edge in attacking areas but I also think that we have improved as a team as the season has went on as well and because of that I think it will be a really good game, but we’ll try to approach it in a positive manner, like we normally do. We’ll do everything in our power to pick up the three points.”

In recent weeks the Brandywell men have had to find a different side to their game by picking up points in an ugly fashion, securing a narrow 1-0 win over second placed St Patrick’s Athletic and then on Friday night they battled hard to earn a share of the spoils against Bohemians. Higgins has been happy with his side’s recent form.

“We lost at Shamrock Rovers, which is no disgrace losing to the champions, however in saying that we have ambitions going forward to go to places like Tallaght and winning, but the most disappointing one was the Drogheda game, where we probably didn’t deserve to lose, but I don’t think performance-wise we have stumbled,” he added.

“I think the other night we were good and St Pat’s we won in a different way, but if you just want to look at results that’s fair enough, but I think the players have been extremely consist now for four or five months and deserve huge credit. We know that we need to be really focused going down there.

“It’s a big game and we need to do everything that we can to try and pick up three points.”

The Candy Stripes will be without midfielder Ciaron Harkin (suspended) and winger Marc Walsh (injury), but Bastien Hery does return to the squad, as he couldn’t play against his parent club Bohemians, on Friday night.