Derry City's Cameron McJannet only focusing on Shelbourne

Defender Cameron McJannet says Derry City are facing five ‘cup finals’ this season, starting with Shelbourne at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium tomorrow night.
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In their previous three meetings this season only one goal has separated the sides with City winning twice at Tolka Park and the Dubliners picking up the three points at the Brandywell in April.

"We have five cup finals for the rest of the season and Friday is the first one," insisted McJannet, "That's all we've been thinking about since Sunday and hopefully we can win this next ‘cup final’.

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"Each game we’ve played them they've shown they're a tough team and they've already beaten us here at the Brandywell. All three games have only been separated by one goal.

"We've beaten them twice at their place 1-0 and they beat us here 2-1, so they've shown that they've got it in them."

The Foylesiders have incredibly won their last nine games domestically and Luton Town fan McJannet is hoping they can maintain that run over the remainder of the campaign.

"Yeah we're on a good run and hopefully we can just keep this momentum going," he added. "It would be great if we could.

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"But, as I said, Shelbourne have done everything they could to make every game against us tough this season and I expect Friday night to be no different.”

Derry City's Cameron McJannet runs away from Shamrock Rovers' Jack Byrne. Picture Kevin Moore/mciDerry City's Cameron McJannet runs away from Shamrock Rovers' Jack Byrne. Picture Kevin Moore/mci
Derry City's Cameron McJannet runs away from Shamrock Rovers' Jack Byrne. Picture Kevin Moore/mci
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In their last meeting at Tolka Park, Ryan Graydon’s stoppage time goal sealed the points for Ruaidhri Higgins’ side and at the final-whistle Shels striker Sean Boyd received a red card after clashing with McJannet.

The Derry defender laughs off the incident now but describes the ex-Shamrock Rovers and Finn Harps front man as a “tough opponent”.

"He's one of the biggest handfuls in the league. He's so good in the air. He scores goals as well and that's all you can ask for as a striker," added McJannet.

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"Emotions were high that last time but that's football and it's all behind us now. We will just get on with it.

At the start of the season the former Stoke City man was playing at centre-back but recent weeks have seen a switch to left-back incorporating quite a few lung bursting runs up the wing to create chances.

In fact, it was his lovely cross which set-up Brandon Kavanagh for Derry's second goal last week against Treaty United.

Despite that versatility along the back line, McJannet says he doesn't mind where he plays as long as he's in the starting line-up, especially with the season drawing to a close.

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Indeed McJannet insists Derry are solely focused on their own run-in and haven’t discussed anyone else, despite moving to within six points of champions Shamrock Rovers, with a game in hand.

"If you're on the pitch then you're happy so it's great for me at the minute," he explained. "But I know that I have to keep working hard and playing well to keep my place in the team because we have a lot of quality players waiting to come in.

"We just need to focus on ourselves as it's all about us. As I said, we've five cup finals over the rest of the season so let's see what happens if we win as many as possible."

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