Derry City's Joe Thomson ready for Shamrock Rovers test

The talented midfielder wants to finish their league campaign with a pair of good performances and picking up positive results against the champions and the side sitting in third place would be the ideal tonic for the Aviva showdown.

The Candy Stripes make the trip to Tallaght Stadium this Sunday knowing a point guarantees them second place and Thomson would love to secure that runners-up spot this weekend.

"We've got two good games to finish the league season," insisted Thomson.

"I feel we've still got a lot to play for as we still haven't cemented second place yet and we'll be looking to do that.

"We're a team that believes we should be winning every game. We’re disappointed to drop any points.

"We have ambitious players in our changing room, players who want to be competing, want to be winning trophies and winning every game.

“We want to give it a right go and be right up there."

Thomson, who has been in and out of the side this season, concedes that everyone in the squad knows they have to impress if they harbour hopes of being selected for the cup final.

"Obviously we're all going to be fighting for a place come November 13th," he added, "Because we've got more than just 11 good players, we've got a really good squad now, so I don't think anybody's place is certain at this point.

"We obviously want to win our last two games because winning is a habit. It breeds confidence so, as I said, we'll be wanting to finish with two wins going into the cup final and be full of confidence.

"We're unbeaten in 20 games domestically and we want that run to continue but we know that we'll have to perform for that to happen.

"It’s hard when you’re not playing but the team have been on a decent run. To be fair I was still contributing, I was coming on and I felt as if I was making a good impact.

“Look, as much as it was frustrating, you have to channel that frustration in the right way and I feel like I was doing that because I still had to be there for my team-mates. I haven’t been the only one, there have been a few of us that have been in the same boat, but we’ve all kept going.”