KENNY SHIELS is hoping to keep Derry City’s FAI Cup tradition going when they travel to Wexford Youths on Friday.
City, who have won the competition five times, are two wins away from another Aviva Stadium showdown in November: “It’s a cup which Derry City have good tradition in and good success in and we would like to carry that on, but it’s not going to be an easy game,” said Shiels.
“Wexford narrowly lost to Dundalk and they have beaten Sligo so their recent form is good. We know from having played them twice this season just how hard it’s going to be. You don’t get anything in life unless you work for it and that’s been our attitude all season.”
Shiels admits reaching the FAI Cup final would be great, but he is focusing totally on Friday evening’s quarter-final: “As a manager, a cup win would mean a lot to me, but you can’t look beyond the horizon,” he said.
“We don’t talk about semi-finals and finals when we haven’t even played the quarter-finals. The rewards are great, it’s our most important match of the season because it’s our next one, and it’s a very difficult opponent. We’re very proud to still be in this competition and we have great aspirations to give our supporters a cup final and it would be absolutely brilliant if we could do that.”
Shiels confirmed that winger Lukas Schubert is struggling with a knee problem, while Ryan McBride, Maximilian Karner, Gareth McGlynn and Aaron Barry are all definitely out. In fact, Barry will be out for the remainder of the season as a troublesome hip injury means he’ll probably have to undergo surgery in the coming weeks.
“Lukas is struggling with a knee injury, so he’ll have a fitness test and we’ll see how he is after that,” said Shiels.
“Aaron is out for the season, it’s a huge blow. It’s disappointing for him, especially if we keep going in the cup. It’ll be hard for him.”
