DERRY City manager Kenny Shiels believes tonight’s opponents Sligo Rovers will be a hard nut to crack.
City defeated Rovers only a few weeks ago in the EA Sports Cup, but Shiels feels they will be a different proposition this evening, especially after they secured their first league victory of the season beating Longford Town last weekend.
“Sligo have been knocking on the door for a victory for so long,” he said.
“They were very unfortunate losing to a disputed penalty at Dundalk, they went to St Pat’s and drew 1-1 and they drew with Cork, so you could see they are in the making of a very good team.
“They are a good side and I’m sure they’ll entertain the supporters, but hopefully not too much, but I think it should be a decent game.”
Tonight match will be the Brandywell men’s first of five games in the space of just 25 days and because of that Shiels is hoping his squad can cope.
“We have quite a few games coming up especially next month,” he said.
“So we have a lot of work to do and hopefully we’ll have the bottle to meet the challenges as they come along.”
Duo Aaron Barry and Dean Jarvis may return to the squad, but duo Harry Monaghan and Gareth McGlynn are both still on the treatment table.
“Gareth is still out; Aaron and Dean could make the bench but we’ll have to wait and see.
“They both trained on Thursday but we’ll have to wait and see today if they have any reaction, but it looks as if Dean will definitely make the bench but Aaron is more of a maybe.”
Elsewhere this evening, the match of the night takes place at Turners’ Cross with Cork City facing fellow title hopefuls St Patrick’s Athletic.
Champions Dundalk face Bohemians at Dalymount Park, in-form Galway United entertain Longford Town and managerless Bray Wanderers travel to an out-of-sorts Shamrock Rovers side, at Tallaght Stadium.
In the First Division, Drogheda United take on Cobh Ramblers and Athlone Town make the trip to Shelbourne.
Tomorrow night there are two games scheduled in the First Division with UCD visiting Cabinteely and leaders Limerick face Waterford United at Markets Field.
TONIGHT’S FIXTURES
(7.45pm unless stated)
SSE Airtricity Premier Division
Bohemians v Dundalk
Cork City v St Patricks
Derry City v Sligo
Galway Utd v Longford Town
Shamrock Rovers v Bray (8pm)
Wexford Youths v Finn Harps (8pm)
SSE Airtricity First Division
Drogheda Utd v Cobh Ramblers
Shelbourne v Athlone Town
