Derry City welcome Dundalk to what will be a sold-out Brandywell on Monday night as they look to close the gap on their visitors to just four points.
City, whose recent 10-match unbeaten run was halted by Bray Wanderers, have bounced back with a big EA Sports Cup win over Shelbourne followed by a well deserved scoreless draw with reigning champions Cork City on Friday night. Now they face another tough assignment just three days later as Stephen Kenny`s side come to town.
Derry are continuing to monitor the fitness of a couple of players, according to manager Kenny Shiels, which means he won't finalise his starting 11 until the picture becomes clearer.
For Dundalk, Karolis Chvedukas remains out with a persistent ankle injury, while Stephen O’Donnell is ruled out with a broken leg and will miss the rest of the campaign after surgery on Friday. Sean Gannon is also out with broken ribs while John Mountney is a doubt with a knee injury. Daniel Cleary will miss the game due to a one-match suspension after accumulating five yellow cards.
"Of course this is another huge game but we have a young and fairly inexperienced squad and it is my job to manage these things," said Shiels about the amount of games his young players are being forced to play in such a short time frame.
"Dundalk are a quality side and they will pose a different threat from some of the other sides competing at the top of the league. We have to prepare for the game as well as we possibly can just as we do for every opponent."
Shiels is also calling on the Derry public to continue to get behind his side as its important in such a big game, "Our supporters were superb on Friday night against Cork and that gave the players- especially the younger ones a real lift. I hope they come out in the same numbers and with the same intensity on Monday as that would mean a lot to us."
Dundalk midfielder Robbie Benson s expecting another tight affair between the sides at the Brandywell, "It is a huge game tomorrow going to the Brandywell. We only played them a few weeks ago and they are full of confidence. It was a great open game when they were here at Oriel a few weeks ago. It will be more of the same you’d imagine and it will be great for the neutral."
“From our point of view. we want to go and win the games. We are going to have a few tired bodies, as we are going Friday-Monday for this period. There’s a lot of games. It’s difficult going away to places like Derry but we are looking forward to it and hopefully we can get the three points."
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