'Pivotal' game for Derry City at Tallaght tonight

Shamrock Rovers vs. Derry City

Tallaght Stadium

Tonight, 8pm

Ruaidhri Higgins admits that tonight’s game against Shamrock Rovers is a pivotal game in Derry City’s season.

The Candystripes head to Tallaght with the incentive of closing the gap at the top of the Premier Division to just one point if they win at the home of the champions for the second time this season.

Back in March, goals from Ben Doherty and Jamie McGonigle helped City to a 2-1 victory at Tallaght, but Rovers got revenge with a comfortable 2-0 win at the Brandywell in May. With both teams front runners in the title race, tonight’s result could well be pivotal come the end of the season.

“It’s the most important game because it’s the next one,” Higgins said. “They are top of the table and we are second at the minute. It’s a pivotal game. We won there earlier in the season so we know how to win there and we’ll go there and give it a go, that’s for sure.

“To be fair, our record in the last year has been good against Rovers and there were some really good performances as well, but in my time that last game was the most disappointing performance against Shamrock Rovers.

“We have to learn from that, we have to see where they got the better of us and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s a mouth-watering game and something to really look forward to and preparation is key now that we do everything over the weekend to go down there and give ourselves the best possible opportunity.”

City ended a run of four games without a win on Friday night, and they received an added bonus of Rovers dropping two points against Bohemians. But for Higgins, beating Cork was his sole focus.

“That was all that mattered to be honest,” he continued. “We’ve gone a while without winning. We weren’t vintage by any stretch, but we did create quite a number of chances, which was pleasing because that’s something we haven’t really done in recent weeks. We created some chances and scored a couple of goals and we battled hard and we fought for each other and we got it over the line.”

It was also an important night for Jamie McGonigle, who scored his first goal in 13 appearances, since hitting the winner against Rovers in Tallaght earlier in the season.  

“It’s huge for him and you could see the outpouring of relief whenever he scored,” Higgins agreed. “He got into the team by how he trained this week and it’s a brilliant glancing header to be fair. He scored one similar against Rovers in the cup last year. I’m delighted for him because it’s been a tough time for him. I thought his all-round performance was good. He worked his socks off, dug in for the team and produced a good performance and got his goal.”