Derry City winger Michael Duffy doubtful for Cork City encounter

​The City boss described his side’s form as “patchy” in the first half of the campaign, but with the FAI Cup and Europa Conference League ties coming next month against Athlone Town and HB Torshavn respectively, Higgins believes everyone will have a spring in their step after the mid-season break.

“The first half of the season has been patchy,” he admitted, “We’ve had good periods of form and some not so good periods of form, so we need to try and be more consistent and win more games of football and that’s the plan going forward.

“We’re going into a really exciting period of the season. We’ve HB Torshavn in Europe, we face Athlone Town in the FAI Cup, which we own at the minute and we also have the league campaign starting up, so there’s so much to play for and there’s so much for our supporters, players and the club to get excited about over the next couple of weeks and months.

“We haven’t won for a while and we have to try and win this game, we must do everything in our power to win this game and then we’ll deal with whatever comes after that.

“We’ve seen this week a real intensity, sharpness and the players taking the shackles off. Some players who mightn’t have been in and around the team as much as they’ve would have liked, they in particular have had an outstanding week and come into contention for the Cork game.

“We’re excited and we’re looking forward to the next part of the season.”

City host Cork City tomorrow evening and despite sitting second from bottom, Higgins believes The Rebel Army will come to Foyleside in a confident mood.

The Munster men, prior to their narrow home defeat to Dundalk just before the mid-season break, had won their previous four matches and striking pair Ruairi Keating and Tunde Owolabi are always a threat, particularly on the counter attack.

“Over the last month to six weeks they’ve probably been one of the in-form teams in the league, right up there in terms of form teams in the country,” he added.

“I know they’re sitting second bottom but in terms of form they’re flying. They’re a good side and they’ve really good attacking threats and can cause you major problems.

“We need to be at our very best to win the game, that’s for sure. They’ve definitely got fire-power, there’s no doubt about that, but we’ll have a plan going into the game and hopefully it pays off.”

The Foyleside men will be without Patrick McEleney, Cameron Dummigan and Will Patching, while Michael Duffy remains a doubt but on the plus side Jordan McEneff, who missed the scoreless against Bohemians just before the break, is available again.

“On Friday night, Patrick, Dummigan and Patching will all miss out,” stated the Limavady man.

“Michael Duffy is a doubt; Patching is unavailable and is a bit away as well, Jordan should be fine and then obviously Collie (Whelan) and Jackie (Ciaron Harkin) are long term injuries.”