Tiernan Lynch expects Derry City's squad depth to tested during challenging double header

​Fresh from a morale-boosting 4-1 win over Bohemians at Celtic Park last weekend, Lynch challenged his team to follow it up with another three points at Pearse Stadium in Galway.

While the Brandywell boss says his squad is 'in a good place', the recent departure of FIVE first-team players has left them thin on the ground going into games against Galway United on Friday and Shamrock Rovers on Monday night.

Newly appointed Director of Football has been working around the clock to find reinforcements in the upcoming summer transfer window.

Until then, Lynch hopes his players can 'step up to the plate' as sixth placed Derry look for back-to-back wins for just the second time this season.

"The staff will bring their boots on Friday night as well," he joked. "No, listen. They're all huge losses. Really good lads who worked their socks off for the club and I think we can only be thankful and appreciative of them.

"But we've moved on. When the window opens, we must ensure we have fresh faces ready to come in.

"It's a massive challenge, there's no doubt about that," Lynch admitted. "Away to Galway and then away to Rovers. You can look at the negatives in it or you can look at the positives. The positives are if you come out of it with the right results it really kicks you on. That's how we have to look at it.

"There are people who have gone out the door but all that does is give people who are still here the opportunity to play. Hopefully they can step up to the plate and we can kick on.

"We need to build on last week but there's a quiet confidence in that changing room. We feel we've been very unlucky on so many occasions and things haven't went our way. On Friday night [against Bohs] they went our way and we really need to try and build on that.

"It was definitely our best result of the season and as we've been talking about internally and externally, everyone will talk about the result and winning 4-1 but for us it wasn't necessarily that our performance had changed. We didn't do anything differently in terms of our build-up, our gameplan but we finished our chances and that was massive for us.

"We didn't create any more chances than we would normally create. We didn't get any more box entries than we normally do, nor did we affect the last line any more than we normally would, but when we did get our chances we took them and I think that was the key.

"I can't throw enough credit at these players even when things weren't going our way and we were low. These boys came in every day and kept working hard. It's nice to see a little bit of a smile on their faces now after getting that result. It's important we try and build on that now. "

Derry's victory over Bohs was the fifth and final game played at their temporary home at Find Insurance Celtic Park but they trained at the Derry GAA ground this week in preparation for playing at another as Galway welcome them to Pearse Stadium.

Lynch knows his players must brace for a battle against John Caulfield's men who will hope to use the unique occasion to their advantage just as they did when welcoming Shamrock Rovers to Celtic Park for that historic clash back in April. "I think it will be one of those games. I'm sure they've trained on it this week and got a bit more used to it than ourselves. Having played at Celtic Park for our last number of homes games hopefully it won't be that much of a difference. Celtic Park has been quite good for us so hopefully it can be the same."

Galway have taken four points from a possible six against Derry this season but Lynch is determined to build some much-needed momentum.

"We know what we're getting going to Galway. We know John's teams. They're big, strong, physical and hard to play against. They will want to turn this into a battle. Our job is to match that physically and then try to play our football as best we can. That has to be our intention.

"Sixteen months in I haven't had any easy games yet. There's no doubt it will be a really difficult place to go. It will probably add a little bit of spice going into a new venue. It is what it is. We have to go there full of confidence. There are areas where we feel we can exploit. They have a lot of strengths, there's no doubt about it but there are areas where we feel we can exploit and hopefully we can do that."