DERRY City manager Kenny Shiels believes an EA Sports Cup run is exactly what his side needs at the minute.?The Candystripes, who lost out at the semi-final stage last season, travel to Galway United tonight as they look to end a run of three straight defeats, the last of which came against neighbours Finn Harps on Friday night.
And Shiels is in no doubt about the benefits of staying involved in the competition.?“Cup runs are important and we could maybe get through the rounds, get some prize money in and that would be great for the club as well,” he said.?“The prestige of getting into the quarter-finals would be good for us as well, but it’s a big game for both us and Galway and something has to give.?“We need to win, they need to win, most of all to get the morale back and the boys up and running, working hard and playing hard.
"Doing the things that we were doing well, with a high energy, so we need to get that back and let’s use this game to try and get it back.?“We need to keep placing the demands on ourselves to get better and get back to winning ways."
Shiels is also very aware of the need to give the club's loyal supporters something to cheer about after a difficult time.?“We’ll have some supporters who are making the trip to Galway and they deserve a performance and we owe them a performance," he said.?“It’s good that we have a game so quickly (after the Finn Harps defeat) and it is a big game, so we have to go there, get our team together to try and lift the spirits.?“It isn’t easy to do, but we will address the problems as a team and as a club.”?Derry are expected to give the likes of fringe men Harry Monaghan, Mark Timlin, Ben Doherty and Nathan Boyle a start.?“We need to get the energy back into the side and we are short-changing our supporters and we have to do something about it,” said Shiels.?“Nicky Low is struggling with a niggle, Lukas Schubert is probably out, he has got a thigh strain, but we'll wait and see.?“We want to freshen things up obviously, it’s midweek games the next three weeks and if we were to win tomorrow night, it will be midweek the next four weeks, so those are the things we have to do.”
