Derry City's Brandon Kavanagh only focused on St Patrick's Athletic encounter

City saw off Shamrock Rovers in the Extra.ie FAI Cup quarter-final on Sunday and sit just a point behind the Hoops in the Premier Division table. However, Kavanagh warned they can ill afford to look ahead to the last four encounter to Treaty United, insisting Derry’s only focus is on their next game at St Patrick’s Athletic later this month.

“We’ve a lot to play for in terms of the league, as we’re just there on their toes,” he insisted. “You could see how much passion is in the group, how much we fight for each other, and with us now at the business end of the season we’re ready for it.

“With us now, we’ve had a tough couple of weeks and have worked so hard so we now have a couple of days off and then when we come back with all our focus on the league game against St Pat’s.

“When the cup week comes around we’ll focus on Treaty then, but now it’s all about focusing on St Pat’s when we come back for training.”

The 21-year-old former Rovers man was thrilled to finally score his first goal for the Candy Stripes.

“I felt it has been coming all year, as I’ve had a couple of chances here and there but the luck just hasn’t been on my side. Tonight I think I finally got a bit of luck and thankfully it went in,” he said.

“Once I was in front of goal, you don’t think about anything else apart from concentrating on hitting it well and sticking it in. Once you hear that ball going into the back of the net, this whole crowd lights up, it’s unbelievable and it’s a fantastic moment, which I’m delighted to be a part of.

“Any type of goal for me is special and I was just waiting for it so I’m absolutely delighted to have finally scored for Derry.”

In recent weeks the Dubliner found himself in and out of Ruaidhrí Higgins’ team but he feels he has contributed well this season and also believes City are now out of their bad patch.

“Since the start of the year I’ve played a lot of games and I’ve been happy with how I played. I think the team played well and, yes, we went through a sticky period, which every team goes through, but we’re out of that now,” he explained.

“We’re now six wins on the bounce and we’ve kept five clean-sheets in a row. Now it’s about us just keeping this going and looking to impress our style of play on teams. Sort of, press the life out of them and show them what we’re about.

“As I said, every team goes through a sticky patch. It’s not just us, every team goes through a rough patch but we’ve dragged ourselves out of it and it wasn’t by luck. We’ve all put our heads down and worked harder.

"Every man in our changing room works hard, there’s no one letting the team down or anything like that. We’re all there and all on the same page. As I said, it’s the business end of the season now, so let’s go and see what we can do.”