​Wounded Derry City must take out ‘hurt’ and 'frustrations' on UCD

Still smarting from their 1-0 loss to Sligo last week, Higgins knows tonight’s visit of relegated UCD is a fixture they simply must win.

Having held Shamrock Rovers to a stalemate at Belfield last week the City boss knows it won’t be as easy as ‘just turning up’ but he expects a positive response from his wounded side.

​It was another missed opportunity for Higgins’ troops and if it wasn't for referee Rob Harvey's refusal to award a blatant penalty when Cian Kavanagh was upended in the box by Sligo keeper Richard Brush, Derry could well have closed the gap at the top to two points.

Certainly if the match officials had seen what suspiciously looked like a handball for the winning goal, Derry would be closer on the heels of the Hoops.

They didn't, however, and Higgins warned they must be ready to pounce on any further slip-ups by the leaders.

"Listen, we know we're capable of winning matches but we have to be really consistent and play at a high level to do that but we're capable of winning matches starting with the game on Friday.

"We had a poor night last week, there's no getting away from that but if we can show the consistency in our performance levels we showed previous to that, then we can win on Friday and that's all we're focussed on for now is getting three points on the board."

Derry have netted 13 goals past UCD in their opening three meetings this season but Higgins won't be taking Andy Myler's team lightly, particularly after that morale-boosting draw with the Hoops.

"We need to take our hurt and frustration out in the game," said Higgins. "To be fair the players have been fantastic for quite a while now and we're all hurting.

"We know Friday is a really big game. UCD have just come off a brilliant result against Shamrock Rovers. And if you look at it, they've taken points off all the top teams this season so they're no mugs that's for sure.

"Rovers had a lot of the ball but didn’t really have loads of chances. UCD were really well set up. I'm sure they will be the exact same coming here. We're at home and we have to go and beat them, it's as simple as that,” added Higgins.

"It's a game we need to win but they can't be dismissed either. If this league has proved anything this year, you see the spread of points around the league - I've never seen it before.

"I've been involved in the league since the summer of 2004 and I've never seen the League of Ireland so closely congested and the spread of points right throughout the league.

"There's not that many points between eighth and second. If you look at it in previous years there's a massive amount but it's become really competitive.

"UCD have taken points off Rovers, Shels, Dundalk, Bohemians. One thing it shows is you can't just think it's home to UCD, we just have to turn up.

"That's not the way it works and our players know that. We need to be really professional in how we go about it to try and get the three points."

On the team front, Ronan Boyce misses out through suspension after his dismissal in Sligo but Shane McEleney returns to the squad after serving his one match ban for his red card against Rovers. His brother Patrick is doubtful due to a flare-up of his Achilles issue while Mark Connolly is also struggling with an ankle injury.