DERRY City boss Ruaidhrí Higgins believes his side could do better after reaching the half-way point of the season.
The Candystripes, who face Sligo Rovers at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium on Friday night, sit four points behind leaders Shelbourne and two points ahead of champions Shamrock Rovers, but Higgins feels his squad has had somewhat of an up and down campaign.
“Very much up and down,” he insisted. “One thing for sure is it’s a more competitive league than I can ever remember.
“It’s very rare you would see the bottom team beat the champions, for example, and that’s happened recently.
“It’s just been a really strange season. It’s been up and down.
“We’ve had good spells. We started the season well. We had a blip. Then we had a mixed bag somewhere in the middle. We’ve been on a decent run recently.
“Then we had a defeat on Monday night, so it’s been very much up and down.
“However we have shown the ability and the capacity after a setback to recover quickly, so we need to do that again.”
The Foylesiders lost to Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium on Monday evening and not for the first time this season failed to perform in the first half, something which has been their achilles heel as they have only scored seven of their 25 goals in the first half – something Higgins would like to see change.
“Aye, goals maybe, but performance-wise, we’ve had some good first halves and games,” insisted the Derry boss.
“Monday night I was purely talking about the performance, in that you can’t let 45 minutes go by and expect to get decent results. And we let 45 minutes go by the other night and got punished and should have been punished further, but we showed a wee bit more personality in the second half.
“We just need to move on from it. We’ve a good chance to bounce back quickly, and that’s what I expect. We can’t dwell on it. Everyone’s disappointed, of course, but there’s so much to play for, so much to look forward to, and that’s what we’ll focus on.”
Derry welcome back leading marksman Pat Hoban from suspension, while centre-back Mark Connolly is also in contention after overcoming a recent groin problem.
“Mark hasn’t trained really for a couple of weeks,” explained Higgins. “Wednesday was his first full session so he’s progressed well. We’ll see how he is closer to kick-off.
“You want all your players available, for all games, it’s great to have that. Listen, we’re not far away.
“I think over the next few weeks, when we get more minutes, and get everyone up to speed more, we’ll be in a really good place. But we need to keep picking up points whilst that’s happening as well.”
Meanwhile elsewhere in the Premier Division, the match of the night takes place at Tallaght Stadium, as Damien Duff’s table toppers take on the Hoops.
Bohemians host Stephen Kenny’s St Patrick’s Athletic and Galway United entertain bottom side Dundalk.