Ruaidhri Higgins relishing St Pat's test despite mounting defensive concerns

​Ciaran Coll has gone under the knife after his knee injury and will miss the final three matches of the season while Mark Connolly is suspended for the trip to Inchicore in a further blow for the second placed Foylesiders.

With Ben Doherty also requiring surgery on his hamstring injury and ruled out for the rest of the season, Higgins must make further changes to his defensive set-up as the Candy Stripes face into the penultimate round of league fixtures with the fascinating title race still in the balance.

The timing of Connolly's suspension couldn't have come at a worse time given the Saints come into tonight's clash averaging almost three goals a game in their last five fixtures and on the back of a seven match winning streak.

Higgins reckons the Dubliners, who are just two points behind his side in fourth place, will be favourites to claim the win but despite his defensive concerns, the City boss is confident his players can pull off another significant performance which will keep their double hopes alive.

“There's no doubt they're the form team in the league at the minute," said Higgins who spent his 40th birthday on Wednesday entertaining the media.

"They've been excellent. A lot of players have really hit form, had a good time. Where they are now is where people fancy them to be, so it's no surprise."

September's SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Ireland player of the month Jake Mulreany has been in prolific form for the Saints while teen sensation Mason Melia, Zack Elbouzedi, Brandon Kavanagh and James Keena - two goal hero against Galway last week - will also provide major threats to Derry's makeshift rearguard.

However, Higgins would rather focus on Derry's own attacking talent who he backs to give the Richmond Park club some headaches of their own and he challenges his players to 'put their best foot forward'.

“You can look at it as a worry, or you can look at it as an opportunity for someone else to stake a claim in a big game, and that's what we'll be looking at, for someone to put their best foot forward.

"Over the last couple of weeks, we've obviously had a big win in Dalymount and a good one last week away from home as well.

“Our form has picked up away from home in recent times and we've won down there before this season, and hopefully we can replicate that again.

“We have a lot of top end players at the club. Although we do have some injuries we still have some exceptional players that can win a game of football so we're really looking forward to it and we're not focusing on losing the game, we're focusing on winning the game.

“Their attacking players have been really, really good in recent weeks and caused problems for teams but I’ll back my players any day of the week.

"We've outstanding attacking talent as well. We may talk about their attacking talent, but I've absolutely no doubt that they'll have some concern about some of our attacking players as well so I'd rather focus on us.”

“As I said, Pats are now where everyone thought that they would be. They've just got there at a different time and they've shown really good form, but that has to end at some point.”

Should Derry win their first top flight title since 1997 they will have done it the hard way as the Brandywell men face the form team in their own backyard before taking on the long-time leaders Shelbourne on the final day.

Nothing less than six points will do, barring major slip-ups from both Shels and Shamrock Rovers but Higgins knows his team are capable of producing big performances when the chips are down. “That's just the way it is. We all know in football that nothing comes easy. If it did, everyone would be at it. We're full of confidence at the minute. The players are in great spirits. We've a tight-knit dressing room and I've no doubt that on the big occasion, again, that they can produce.”

Of course they've produced the goods against Pat's this term, winning all four meetings, scoring nine goals and conceding just twice.

They did suffer a 4-1 thrashing in Inchicore last season while in April 2022 Higgins side recorded a 4-0 victory against the Saints at the Dublin venue.

It's certainly a tough one to call but Higgins is relishing a match which has so much at stake.

“There's an awful lot at stake of course there is. There's a lot at stake, and the players are in good spirits this week.

"We have a good record against St Pat's this season, and we want that to continue on Friday. It’s four games this season, four wins.”

“They didn't get off to the best of starts, but they've hit form at a really good time, and they've obviously added well in the summer as well, so they're in good form at the minute.

“We all know the form they're in and they'll be favourites in many people's eyes going into the game, in everyone's eyes probably. It's a challenge that we should relish.

"We're confident we can win anywhere and we've found that when it's been on the line and when we've had to produce results over the last couple of years it hasn't been all the time but more often than not we've managed to get big results over the line.”