Derry City's Brian Maher wants another positive result at UCD

The 22-year-old is expecting a difficult test tomorrow evening, especially if last season’s results at the UCD Bowl is anything to go by.

While the Candystripes secured two victories at the Students in 2022, both games weren’t settled until the second half and because of those matches, Maher is expecting another tricky game.

“Every game in this league is difficult and every game will pose a different challenge to us,” he insisted.

“Also with the Friday and Monday games both in Dublin that’s something we didn’t have last year. We were straight back into training after the Rovers game on Saturday morning, recovering for the UCD match.

“We had a lot of sore bodies in the changing room after the Rovers game, so yeah, we’re expecting another difficult game at UCD.”

The Dubliner concedes that while Friday night’s victory over Stephen Bradley’s men was great, it will count for nothing if they don’t follow it up with another three points tomorrow night.

“Winning at Rovers was great, but Monday’s points are exactly the same as Friday night and because of that we want another win,” he added.

“UCD are bottom of the league and Rovers are the league champions but we’ll treat Monday’s game the exact same way as we did on Friday night.”

Maher conceded that manager Ruaidhrí Higgins changed things around at Tallaght Stadium at half-time, as City were second best for long periods in the opening 45 minutes on Friday night.

“The gaffer said what he felt he needed to say and a lot of it was constructive,” he added.

“To be honest we expect better from ourselves as well at certain parts of the game and as players and staff we spoke about that at half-time and you could see the difference in the second half.

“You expect that you’ll have to make some saves whenever you come to Tallaght. We needed every man to do their job and thankfully I could make a few saves.

“Look, the whole squad are going to demand more clean-sheets this season and we’re probably a little bit disappointed with the goal that we conceded, you probably always are, but if you had offered me 2-1 before we started the game, I would have taken it.”

With last Friday night’s match being The Hoops’ first game back in front of their own fans and Stephen’s son Josh alongside skipper Ronan Finn raising the champions flag before kick-off, Tallaght Stadium really was rocking, so Maher knows how big a win it was for the Brandywell men, but was also quick to point out the season is only three games in.

“You seen the crowd that they had, it was a big game for them as obviously it was their first home game since they won the league last season, it was a great atmosphere, which it always is at Tallaght,” he explained.

“It’s a really good pitch and that probably contributed to a good game, so yeah we’re very happy with the win, but it’s still very early days, as it’s only the third game of the season.”