Jamie McDonagh's 'silly sending off' leaves Devine with selection headache

The winger received a second yellow card in the tunnel at Finn Park after Friday night’s derby win and sits out tonight’s match against the Students.

With Conor McDermott (hip) and Adrian Delap (hamstring) struggling for fitness ahead of the trip to Dublin, it leaves Devine with a few selection problems on the right flank.

“Unfortunately Jamie has picked up another silly sending off. He’s picked up two needless yellow cards, between the penalty incident and after the final whistle so Jamie will miss the next couple of games. It was needless and causes us a few problems in terms of our numbers.

“However, we have other people fighting for a spot. With so many games coming up you have to believe in your squad. If there are niggles there then you don’t take a chance on it. There are three games in seven days and two trips to Dublin in seven days. But great, that’s what we want and we look forward to them.”

City romped to a 3-0 win at home when the teams last met on the opening night of the season but Devine, who takes charge of his hometown club for the 100th occasion, expects tonight’s clash to be a totally different affair.

“It’s definitely a different game. They’ve grown but so have we. We’ve got better from the first game.

“UCD had a fantastic result against Waterford and if you’re not ready mentally to go into this environment then it can always throw things up at you.

The boys have trained brilliantly and came down quickly off the high of the north west derby.

“We go into it in good form on a run of three consecutive wins so we’re looking forward to it.”

Ciaran Coll has returned to training following his injury sustained in the derby while Patrick McClean is expected to return to the starting XI. Peter Cherrie could also make a return.