Ruaidhri Higgins insists Derry City won't be writing themselves out of the title race

Rory Gaffney's 27th minute strike proved the difference between the two teams on the night but that seven point margin will be difficult to claw back with just 13 games remaining.

Derry can take positives from a performance in Tallaght where they dominated the ball for large spells but they're lack of 'craft' and 'devilment' in the final third saw them come up short against a Rovers team who managed the match perfectly in the end.Higgins wasn't too disheartened despite falling to a sixth defeat of the season and defiantly claimed his team won't be giving up the fight for the title as easy as that.

"It's definitely an uphill task, there's no doubt about that," conceded Higgins afterwards. "We have 39 points to play for. Well try and pick up as many as we can. If it's good enough, great, if it's not then it is what it is but there's still so much to play for.

"We're not writing ourselves off whatsoever because I know that when we get a wee bit of luck in terms of fitness to key players we know we can go on an outstanding run. We have Europe around the corner, the FAI cup around the corner so there's so much to play for and we're not giving up on anything yet.

"We need to go and string a really outstanding run together. There's no doubt about that. There's still plenty of football to be played but every game that goes by where you don't pick up three points puts a bit more pressure on you.

"I've no doubt we can do that but we need to get key personnel fit and on the pitch."

Brandon Kavanagh was one of Derry's bright sparks in the final third but there was little support as Derry failed to register a meaningful shot on target throughout a frustrating 90 minutes.

Higgins insists his team are not that far away from Rovers and pointed to the list of key players who have been unavailable to him for the majority of the season. "Mark Connolly started eight games out of 23, Cameron Dummigan started six games out of 23. Patrick McEleney started 10 out of 23, Michael Duffy, 11 out of 23 - that's four of the best players in the whole country.

"For us to do anything and try and win league titles you need . . . I don't know any team anywhere that could deal without four or five of their best players. Do I feel we're far off? No I don't but they're seven points clear of us and that's the difference - Rory Gaffney gets a sniff and it's in the back of the net.

"When you come to a place like this and have control and have the opposition pinned in, that's when your Duffys and your Patchings and McEleneys and McMullans and people like that come to the fore.

"We have to wait until we get to that point but our play was really encouraging in the first two thirds of the pitch but you don't win games in the first two thirds you win games in the final third. It's just disappointing when you come here and don't get anything from the game.

"I think it was clear we put in a really good performance. The plan I felt worked really well but it was just that wee bit of craft and devilment if you want to call it that, in the final third that gets you results in these types of places."

And despite encouraging signs at the start of the first half, that final product in those dangerous areas let them down.

“We started the game brilliantly. I know Richie Towell has a chance but right up until their goal we played the game in their half of the pitch and controlled it. They scored, I felt, against the run of play and then we lost composure for 10 or 15 minutes and grew back into it towards the end of the half.

"Second half we had the lion’s share of possession again and controlled large periods of the game up until a point..We got into good areas so many times and lacked that bit of quality, the cross, the final pass whatever it may be but up until that point our play was very good.

After that point it probably wasn't good enough.

"Clear cut chances only come by putting in a good cross or playing a good final pass, that's why we never had real clear cut chances the fact our final cross or pass let us down,” added the City boss.

New signing Paul McMullan will certainly bring that to the fore when he's cleared to play in July and Higgins revealed he expects another player through the Brandywell gates 'imminently'.

"We're looking. We've added McMullan and one is pretty imminent and then we'll try and add another one. God knows one or two might want to move on as well but we'll see. We're down in numbers, you can see our bench and no one can leave at the minute that's for sure."