Kenny Shiels admits he was 'worried' ahead of trip to Tallaght

The Maghera man's thread-bare Derry City side were comfortably defeated 2-0 by Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght on Friday night with new signing, Dean Shiels frustratingly watching from the stands.

Canadian winger, Ben Fisk who was signed as a free agent was handed his first start and impressed in stages but overall the Candy Stripes couldn't match the south Dublin outfit who moved three points clear of City in fourth spot.

And Shiels reckons the second half of the season gets underway a week too soon as he was unable to reinforce his side for the difficult trip to Tallaght.

The City boss admitted he was 'worried' about travelling to face the in-form Hoops given his under-strength squad with midfielders, Aaron McEneff (suspended) and Nicky Low (groin) unavailable.

"Our engine room is out, we have four midfield players out and you're playing a centre half in midfield and it's hard to manage that," he said. "Next Friday night we're going to be better equipped obviously with the new players coming in.

"Its a really hard shift at the minute and you can see that. We were worried coming down because of the personnel we didn't have and the players we were missing. You can make excuses or give established reasons, but we weren't a million miles off them. The scoreline was just about right but we didn't put a glove on them really. "

Several new faces are expected to arrive at Brandywell in the coming days with Hearts forward Ally Roy and ex-Kilmarnock midfielder, Aaron Splaine understood to be on City's radar amongst others.

However, Shiels would've preferred to have been able to bolster his side for Friday's match against European rivals, Rovers.

"It's very difficult. You can see what we're down to - look at our bench and we're struggling big time. It's difficult to understand this league because the window and the break, should simultaneously start.

"As soon as you come back from your break there should be a window. I don't understand why there's one game and then the window - I don't know why."