Ruaidhri Higgins - 'It has been a very difficult week'

Ruaidhri Higgins has admitted he has learned a lot this year as he heads into the final league game of the season against Shelbourne with the hurt of a failed title challenge still very much in his mind.

The City boss could yet end his third full season in charge with a fourth successive European qualification and a second FAI Cup, but such is the expectation at the club, that the loss of a potential league title will not be easily forgotten.

“It has been very difficult,” Higgins admitted. “There's no point in saying otherwise, it has been. It's just very strange when you have so much hope and expectation and then it's gone and the realisation of that. You still have to get your head around it quickly and prepare and be as professional as you can and I think we've done that.”

Due to the loss at St. Patrick’s Athletic last week and results elsewhere, Derry City are now fighting for a European place ahead of next Sunday’s FAI Cup final, and also against the ignominy of Shelbourne winning the league title at the Brandywell.

“It's our last home game of the season before the cup final and we want to build the optimism before the final and the best way to do that is by winning your last home game,” Higgins continued.

“We had our goal right the way through the season and it was to try and win the league and we haven't been successful at that and it's obviously extremely disappointing but we have a job in our hands now to finish in the top three.

“When you get into the second last game with a chance of winning the league and then you have a job to finish in the top three it just shows you the nature of it. It's been a mad year and a rollercoaster type year but we have to finish the season strong at home and get ourselves then prepared for the following week.”

The Derry City boss has a number of injury problems ahead of tonight’s game, and with the cup final very much on his mind, he has to think very carefully about his starting eleven against Shelbourne.

“Aye, we obviously have some issues and we have to be very, very careful because we don't want to leave ourselves short but you have to strike a balance too of keeping people at it and keeping people game sharp. It's a balancing act but we still want to finish with a home win here and give us a bit of momentum in the following week.”

Future

Higgins, who has faced criticism on and off for the past few months from upset fans online, would not be drawn on his immediate future, insisting there would be time for reflection after the final league game and the FAI Cup final against Drogheda United.

“I'll talk about going forward after the cup final,” he stated. “It's such fine margins, really fine margins. I'm not going to go over it but you look at certain games and as I said we'll talk about that at the end of the season.

“In terms of the abuse, I'm past that stage. I don't take it personally, I'm past that stage, I'm focused on what we're doing here between now and the end of the season and trying to finish the season on a real high. We can obviously analyse and reflect on the season because there's plenty of time to do that whenever the final whistle goes in the Aviva.”

Victory for Derry City tonight will mean the best home record in a season since 2006. No City team since has managed to win 10 home games in a single Premier Division campaign. The current City squad has already scored more than Stephen Kenny’s team of 18 years ago, and Higgins understandably wants to add to that ahead of a massive game at the Aviva Stadium next Sunday.

“We finished the season with a good win last year against St. Pat’s and we want to do the same again this year,” Higgins said.

“We want to finish the season strongly at home, we want to win the game and we want to go into the following week having won our last game and we'll do everything in our power to do that. We know what's coming up here, we know there's so much on the line for them but we have to have a bit of balance and show loads of pride and show how proud we are to represent this club because that's really important.”