Derry City's Dublin form driving Winchester

Carl Winchester believes Derry City can still challenge for the title as they prepare for a must win game at Tallaght Stadium next Sunday.

After Friday’s 1-1 draw with Bohemians at the Brandywell, the Candystripes are eight points off the league leaders, and know a defeat in Dublin would end any title hopes. But Winchester believes that other big wins in Dublin already this season can give the team confidence that they can get the job done.

“We have gone to Pat’s and got a win, we went to Shelbourne and got a win, so we can take a lot of confidence from that,” he said. “That’s the heights we can hit and if we keep to that standard and keep to that consistency, then I don’t see why we can’t be contenders up there this season.”

City have taken just one point from two games in hand over Rovers, making their task even more difficult heading to Tallaght this weekend, but Winchester is keeping faith that he and his team mates can pull together a run to put them right back in the title picture.

“It is a difficult league and anyone can beat anyone on their day, but I think up to now, we have done well,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a new group with a lot of new players in and we need to focus on the positives and there have been a lot. You can see the signs because we’re on it, we are really on it, but it’s just about keeping that consistency, because even against Bohs, if we take our chances, we probably win that game comfortably.”

City have managed just one win in their last 14 visits to Tallaght, meaning that the current squad will have to overcome inconsistency and history if they are to upset the leaders on Sunday.

“If you want to win leagues, you have to go into these places and not settle for a draw; you have to go for three points,” Winchester insisted. “It’s a tough place to go. Rovers are a really good side who have been together for a really long time, so they’ve got a structure in there and players who know each other’s game really well. As a squad, they have really good depth in there, but you don’t need to go and fear it. It’s another game of football, it’s eleven versus eleven, so we just have to go, believe in ourselves, what we’re doing, and hopefully we put on a good performance and get the three points.”

One of the defining pictures from last Friday’s game against Bohemians at the Brandywell was Winchester standing over a flare as it set fire to the 4G surface, an incident which caused a 5-minute delay in the game.

“We’re not allowed to touch them,” he explained. “We’ve been told that if any object comes onto the pitch, we’re not allowed to touch them or go near them. I actually don’t know what happened, I just saw the flare on the pitch, and thought “Where’d that come from?”, so I just went over and had a look, and there was a big hole on the pitch, which isn’t right. I was told it came over the stand but that could have hit someone on the head or really hurt someone, so it was just a stupid thing that some idiot did.”

The focus this week returns to football, and while there is something of a question mark over Sunday’s game going ahead depending on Rovers’ European situation, the players for now can just focus on what is in front of them, with the possibility of cutting overs’ lead to just five points.

“It’s an absolutely massive incentive,” Winchester agreed. “We know that as a group. We just need to focus on this week, having a good week at training and just taking that confidence into the game and try to get the three points, so that they then will be looking over their shoulders.

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"You know sometimes, that looking over your shoulders at the team coming up, it’s tough, you don’t want to get too comfortable and if we get the win, that will boost our confidence for the next set of games.”