The number five will be at the forefront of Derry City thoughts tomorrow night in what will be an Victory over Bray Wanderers will make it five wins from City’s first five league games for the first time since 1991, but chasing history is likely to be the furthest thing from the players’ minds.

Whatever happens tomorrow night, the shadow of Ryan McBride will hang over Maginn, and as the team prepare to take on what should have been a promising season without their captain, Shiels insists the defender will be with them in spirit throughout.

“The number five keeps cropping up and it’s prevalent in our thoughts,” he told the Derry News. “If we can win this and make it five out of five, in our first game without our number five, it would be poignant and emotional for us. But I keep saying to the players not to be thinking about doing it for Ryan, because that puts pressure on the young players.

“We’re doing it for each other, which Ryan is part of. We still consider Ryan to be with us. It will always include Ryan. We’re doing it for Ryan in a different way. We’re not putting all of our eggs in one basket saying ‘Let’s do it for Ryan. We’re saying ‘Let’s do it for ourselves’. We have to have that mindset that Ryan is part of us.”

There is good news for the Candy Stripes in that top goal scorer Rory Patterson is set to play for the first time since going off injured against Bohemians on the first day of the season. Defender Conor McDermott is the only player struggling to make the game in which an ever-improving Bray side will attempt to become the first away side to win in Buncrana.

“They have added to the squad with players from Limerick and Shamrock Rovers; top players,” Shiels agreed. “Their investment has been very, very big. Let’s just look at it and we treat them with the respect they deserve.

“We have to go on and try to win. We have to be strong enough to carry that emotional imbalance and that will test us. It will test us big time. But that’s pour challenge; we see it as a challenge and not a chore.”

Meanwhile, Shiels has paid tribute to Glenavon assistant manager Paul Millar, who attended Ryan McBride’s funeral just weeks after burying his own son.

He explained: “I was at Paul Millar’s son’s funeral two weeks before Ryan passed away. He buried his 27-year-old son, the same as Lexie. He gave me a hug at Ryan’s funeral. It must have been so hard for him to come up but he did and I have so much respect for him for doing that. That’s a testament to the family that we have in football. He played for me, which is why I went up to his son’s funeral. It was a very poignant for him to do, coming up al the way from Helen’s Bar near Bangor. It was very touching I thought.”

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