'Juggling act' for Ruaidhri Higgins ahead of Derry City's final league game

Derry City vs. Dundalk

Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium

Today, 7pm

Ruaidhri Higgins admits he faces a difficult juggling act as he prepares for tonight's game against Dundalk, with the FAI Cup final very much a consideration.

Derry City need to avoid a three-goal defeat to Dundalk to secure second place, but having failed to win in the last three, Higgins wants his players to go out on a high to send everyone heading to the Aviva Stadium on November 13 in good spirits.

But with injuries and potential suspensions playing on his mind, he admits it is not an ideal scenario ahead of the final league game of the season.

“It’s definitely a juggling act because there’s one or two carrying minor niggles that we want in our team the following Sunday,” he explained. “There are one or two who are a booking away from being suspended at the start of next season. You have to take all of that into consideration and it’s a difficult juggling act, but we want to make sure that we have a team on the pitch that’s good enough to beat Dundalk and the team that takes to the field will be going out to win the game.”

One thing that has changed under Higgins is that games between Dundalk and Derry City are much more competitive. That said, Dundalk are the only team in the league that the Candystripes have failed to beat in 2022, and Higgins is eager for that to change today.

“We want to win,” he insisted. “As I said after the night in Sligo when we didn’t win, the priority is the cup final, but our supporters have been really good to us. They have been really loyal and they have turned up in their numbers even when times were tough. We have to put on a performance to get them excited about the following week as well.

“It has been very competitive between the clubs. We want to finish the season on a high. We’re disappointed that we didn’t take the league title race a week more bit the players have been brilliant. The games between the pair of us have been tight but we are at home and we want to end well.”

Momentum

Going into any cup final with momentum is important, and should City fail to win this weekend, they will be heading into the game with Shelbourne with no wins in four. That is a situation Higgins is keen to avoid.

“Some would tell you that momentum is important and some would tell you that it isn’t, that a cup final is a cup final and it’s a one-off,” he continued. “Ideally you want to be winning games, but there are loads of examples where that hasn’t been the case. We want to finish the season strongly and then we’ll prepare for the cup final once we get Sunday done.

“The way I’m trying to look at it is that we’ve lost one in 21. I know we haven’t won in our last three, but we won nine on the spin before that. In the three games which we didn’t win we’ve had good periods in the games. It’s not as if we’ve been really poor. I think the night we drew with Shelbourne and Rovers won, that was probably the night that hurt us, but there is still so much to be happy about and we want to finish the season on a real high.”

As per tradition, the Derry City fans will do a lap of honour around the Brandywell Stadium following the conclusion of today's game, and at the end of a campaign that has given the supporters some great memories, regardless of what happens in the FAI Cup final.

“It’s been brilliant,” Higgins acknowledged. “We’ve been on a tremendous run and it’s been an unbelievably enjoyable period and if we can cement second place and a cup final, you would have to say it’s been a success and if you finish in second place and win the cup, it’s been a fantastic season.”