Derry City's Daniel Lafferty says Treaty United will have Brandywell club’s respect for last four encounter

The last four tie at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium is scheduled for 2pm on Sunday, October 16th and Lafferty says the City dressing room will be fully focused on the task in hand.

“We’ll not look beyond them and certainly won’t be taking them lightly. We’ll prepare exactly the same way as we did for (Shamrock) Rovers,” insisted Lafferty.

“They’re in the semi-final on merit so credit to them. I’m sure they’ll come here and make it a tough game but obviously we’re full of confidence at the minute.

“We’ll be looking for our form to continue in the league. We’ll worry about the cup when that comes around but we’ll be ready for it.”

Derry are now unbeaten in 11 games with their last domestic defeat some 15 matches ago when Seamus Keogh’s late strike sealed the points for Sligo Rovers in May.

“The momentum is going well at the minute,” explained Lafferty. “We’re unbeaten in I don’t know how many games and we’ve had a lot of clean-sheets so, look, it’s the business end of the season.

"It’s going to take everybody in the dressing room, just like it did tonight, to pitch in and play their part. We are taking one game at a time and not looking at anything beyond that.”

The full-back was thrilled that he and fellow ex-Rovers man, Brandon Kavanagh, came off the bench to score in Sunday’s quarter-final tie.

“It was very hard and there were a lot of emotions in that game,” he explained, “We started really well, dominated the whole first half but obviously we were disappointed not to go 2-0 up with the penalty.

"‘Patch’s’ obviously disappointed with himself about that but we kept going which shows the character and the strength and the depth in the squad.

“Boys came off the bench to get us over the line. I’m not blowing smoke up my own backside but it just shows the strength and depth we have in the squad now. The boys on the pitch gave everything and thankfully us boys coming on made an impact and we’re in the semi-final.”

The 33-year-old said he was over the moon to get on the score-sheet against his old club.

“I was more delighted for myself because it has been quite frustrating recently, (the celebrations) were nothing against Rovers, It has been a long time coming,” he confirmed.

“You deal with your own personal disappointments and frustrations and we’re all fully aware of it because everyone in that dressing room wants to play but the manager can only pick 11. Look, credit to the management for the squad they’ve assembled. Sometimes it takes boys coming off the bench to win games. Thankfully that showed and we got over the line.”