Longford Town head to the Ryan McBride Brandywell on Friday evening looking to start a bit of a roll.
The May bank holiday weekend was a mixed bag for Daire Doyle’s side after a 3-0 roasting to St. Pats in Richmond Park on Friday, Town found themselves 2-0 after 15 minutes against Dundalk on Monday.
Dundalk fought back to claim a point and now Doyle’s side meet Derry City under new manager Ruairi Higgins who is looking for a maiden home victory since taking the reins.
Wanting to prevent his old pal Higgins first home win is one thing, but stopping a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance is most certainly on Doyle’s mind.
“What happened to us on the Friday was a couple of mistakes cost us” declared Doyle. “We were the better side in the whole first-half.
“To gift them the goal in the manner that we did at the beginning of the second-half, if we don’t make the mistake and the game goes on” ponders Doyle who believes a result was possible last Friday.
“A mistake has cost us and then Forrester gets a wonder goal and another mistake made it 3-0”.
“We had a couple of injuries against Dundalk, but we were able to welcome a few players back and that helped us get a good performance and it was a game we could have won”.
Doyle now focuses on Derry City who they last faced in the season opener securing a comprehensive 2-0 win, but now under new management of Higgins.
“It will be a tough test” declared Doyle. “We beat them quiet easily with an excellent performance, we’d be hoping to go up there and impose our game”.
“We want to go in there and win the game, I think our performances have shown that” added Doyle.
On Higgins, Doyle is pensive of Stephen Kenny’s former right hand man, “He’s got a reaction with the group” explained Doyle allowing for the defeat to Finn Harps last Monday
“That is always the way you tend to get a bit of a bounce, it’s the same group of players they’ve had for the first six or seven games of the season”.
“We know how to hurt them and we’ll go into the game looking to do that”
The news however is no so positive on the injury front a Doyle explains.
“It’s not looking good on the injury front, Paddy Kirk is a maybe to be added to the bench, but we’re a bit of time away from getting other players back.”
