Derry City must do what no team has done before in 2020

Just 24 hours ago that scenario was nothing short of a pipe dream as the FAI had proposed that the Brandywell club be forced to forfeit the match for its failure to fulfil the fixture.

And yet the decision by the Independent Disciplinary Committee not to punish the club and the unprecedented last minute reshuffle of the league fixtures has provided Declan Devine’s men with hope of finishing in fourth spot.

There is a multitude of permutations ahead of the final day of the SSE Airtricity League campaign but for Derry to keep themselves in the hunt for Europe, they simply must do what no one else but AC Milan has done this season - beat the champions!

They must do that on Shamrock Rovers’ own patch too but Devine is just thankful to have the opportunity.

Given the uncertainty surrounding next season and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Devine stressed the importance of having European money to fall back on.

“There’s so much to play for,” said the City boss. “In the space of three days there’s a lot of opportunities for the players. These are very unusual times for the players because no one seems to know where we’re going to be this time next year.

“There’s not a lot of clubs doing a lot of business in terms of players and their futures.

“It’s difficult for players and families, there’s no doubt about it, but listen, if you can finish off with two wins you could put yourselves in a really good position.

“To do that we have to do something nobody else has been able to do all year and that’s beat the champions. That in itself is a momentous challenge but at the same time it’s 90 minutes of football.

“We’ve had two games since October 2nd which is crazy. Now we have two games in three days which sums up the madness of the whole season.

“It’s something we have to challenge ourselves. The one thing about the boys, the last three performances have been high level and hopefully we can get the same over the next few games.”

Rovers finally got the chance to lift the Premier Division trophy after their scoreless draw at home to St Pat’s. Devine believes they’ve been head and shoulders above the rest this year and regards the Dubliners as worthy champions.

However, he reckons his own team can take confidence from their last showing against Stephen Bradley’s troops in the 2-1 defeat at Brandywell earlier in the season.

“They’re all really experienced players and have a lot of togetherness and they will be determined to go through the league campaign unbeaten.

“That is credit to them. We have to make sure we go there and try to win the game but it will be extremely difficult.

“We were excellent that night at Brandywell and for 72 minutes we were winning the game. The madness of the goals was incredible.

“This game is an opportunity for us that this time yesterday we didn’t have. We were looking at one game to end the season.

“Now we’ve got two games we have an opportunity to get more points. Shamrock Rovers have certainly earned a lot of respect on our behalf for what they’ve done this season.

“In my opinion they’ve been the best by a country mile this year and deserve to be where they are. Taking the pats on the back away, we have to be focussed going down there and get something from the match.”

With two games in quick succession on the back of a two week hiatus, Devine insists he will make full use of his squad.

“Ally (Gilchrist) will not be involved. He’s out for much longer than we thought but I expect everyone else to be raring to go. In many respects the couple of weeks helped us in terms of getting a couple of boys recovered from injuries or niggles they had.

“Everybody in the squad will have to pull their weight over the next few days. We have a decent squad for the two matches and hopefully the players are able to do the business.”