ADAM O'Reilly believes Derry City can issue 'a massive statement' of the club's league title intent with a victory over champions Shelbourne.

The Dubliners ended an 18 year wait to be crowned Premier Division champions with a 1-0 win over Derry at Brandywell last November - a night which still feels raw for O'Reilly who watched on as they celebrated lifting the trophy on Foyleside.

The former Preston midfielder reckons Derry have gone under the radar in conversations about the title race this season but that could all change should they clinch six points from the May Bank Holiday double-header on Foyleside.

Shels are up first on Friday night before the visit of St Patrick's Athletic - one of the favourites to take their crown - and O'Reilly believes it's a fantastic opportunity to show this Derry team isn't simply making up the numbers this season.

A WORD IN YOUR EAR . . . Adam O'Reilly walking alongside manager Tiernan Lynch at training this week. Photograph by Kevin Morrison.

placeholder image — A WORD IN YOUR EAR . . . Adam O'Reilly walking alongside manager Tiernan Lynch at training this week. Photograph by Kevin Morrison.

"Shels came to our home ground and won the title there," he recalled. "There's still that burning passion inside us from watching them lifting the trophy there and obviously we want to put things right at Brandywell.

"We are going a bit under the radar at the moment and people are thinking because we're a brand new team and still gelling but as you can see, the league is absolutely all over the gaff at the moment.

"Anyone could beat anyone and there are other teams probably going under the radar as well so it's hard to tell who's going to push on."

Two positive results over the next four days will certainly shine a spotlight back on Brandywell and O'Reilly's confident fans will see a marked improvement from last Friday's defeat to Waterford.

Adam O'Reilly hopes Derry City can issue a statement of intent against Shelbourne.

"We're coming into it off the back of a poor result against Waterford. It was frustrating from our end with the set pieces again and it's things we're trying to correct and get better at.

"At the end of the day we're just three points off the top of the league and people can see how tight the league is. So we're straight back into it now. We have Shels and then St Pat's on the Monday. So we've got to get our heads set."

Derry lost 3-1 on the opening night of the season in Tolka but O'Reilly believes the Candy Stripes have improved significantly as a team over the past three months.

"I think we've improved massively. It was a brand new team, new players and people don't know how others play at the very start. We've definitely gelled a lot more now. We’re not out of the running!”