Pat Hoban not satisfied with goal return as he seeks revenge against Galway

​The striker's tally after 18 appearances is enough to top the league's goalscoring charts but his 'disappointment' in his return is perhaps the reason he became Dundalk's record scorer with an outrageous 150 goals in 296 games!

Hoban edged ahead of Waterford's Padraig Amond in this season's race for the golden boot with a well taken strike in the first half of the 3-0 win over the Blues at Brandywell on Monday night. And he's hoping he's rediscovered that Midas touch in front of the posts ahead of a game he will have ringfenced since losing to Galway back in March.

Indeed, Hoban is relishing coming up against his hometown club and insists Derry City 'owe them one' after raiding Foyleside for three points on their last visit north before holding Ruaidhri Higgins team to a scoreless draw at Eamonn Deacy Park last month.

Stephen Walsh came off the bench to clinch a shock victory for the Tribesmen on that night in March and Hoban is ready to go into ‘battle’ and match their physicality when they arrive in town.

The Loughrea native has only played against Galway three times previously and has yet to register a win over last year's First Division champions.

An embarrassing FAI Cup loss when playing for Dundalk last year was his first official game against Galway and turned out to be 'one of the worst night's of my career'. So the ex-Mervue United frontman is desperate for redemption.

"Yeah, we owe them one," warned the 32 year-old. "I haven't had much luck against them recently. They're well structured and basically they die for each other in an unbelievable structure. “The way they play isn't pretty but at the end of the day they play a physical game and you have to match that.

"We're going to have to match that on Friday and be ready for it and then show our quality in possession. So I'm looking forward to the battle and I'm hoping we're all up for it."

Five of his 10 goals this term have come against Waterford, two against St Pat's and Shamrock Rovers and one against Drogheda but he's hoping to add a fifth team to his hit list on Friday.

"It's a mad one because Waterford have been going really well but maybe we just have something over Waterford this year," he began when asked about his scoring record against Keith Long's men.

"To take my tally to 10, I'm a small bit disappointed but you can't beat yourself up too much in this game, you just have to get on with the next one."

They can take huge confidence from Monday's first half performance in particular and Hoban is hoping they can carry momentum into the midseason break with games against Galway and Bohemians to come.

"It was a good result," said the three-time SSE Airtricity League winner. "We were at it from the off. We came out of the traps strongly and put the game to bed.

"It was brilliant. I think it was probably one of the best first half performances we've had all year. We were probably due that. We haven't started well this past few times and it hasn't been ideal.

Tonight we had the game dead and buried by half-time which is always a good thing. Pity we couldn't get more goals but what happened to Fats killed the momentum of the game."

Hoban knows his goals can't be expected to fire Derry to the title alone and he's delighted there's been a good spread throughout the team.

"Everyone chipping in is always a plus. To win this league you need everyone scoring from all parts of the pitch. So it's pleasing for Mark [Connolly] to get his goal tonight but three points was the main thing and we got that.”