Sligo Rovers are back in front of the television cameras again this Monday night as the Bit O’Red travel to the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium to take on Derry City, kick-off 7.15pm.
This game was initially meant to take place on Friday, October 4th but was rescheduled due to Derry’s involvement in the FAI Cup.
This will be Rovers’ second visit to the Brandywell this season after claiming a well deserved draw with Ruaidhiri Higgins’ side back in May.
Rovers’ recent form against the cup finalists has been impressive, having not lost to the Candystripes in their last four meetings.
Rovers boss John Russell was handed a boost this week with the return of both John Mahon and Conor Reynolds to the match day squad for Wednesday’s mid-season friendly against Celtic.
Both players appeared for the latter portion of the late defeat to the Scottish outfit after missing the season to date with achilles and leg injuries respectively.
However, neither Mahon or Reynolds will be available to travel to Derry next week.
In other team news, Daire Patton, Kyle McDonagh, Wilson Waweru and Stephen Mallon will all miss out due to knocks.
“It’s another really tough game against a title-challenger, but again we embrace these sort of games and really look forward to them”, Russell says.
“These are the games you want to be involved in where you’re still in with a great chance of getting a European spot. We’ll be doing all we can in these last few games to secure as high a finish as we can.
“We were genuinely unfortunate not to take the win from Tolka against Shels, so Derry will know they can expect a game.
“We have a very good record against them recently and we’ll be looking to maintain that. They’ll be playing in front of a sold-out, expectant home crowd and also in front of the RTE cameras so it’s a huge night for everyone. They have a vast squad to choose from and have huge experience in all areas of the pitch, so it’s no wonder they’re chasing a double.”
Wednesday’s sold-out game with Celtic was Rovers’ first outing since that Shels stalemate two weeks ago. Russell selected several first team players for that game and was happy with how it went.
“It was great to stretch the legs and keep that freshness in the boys given we had no game the weekend previous. It was a great evening for the club and I thought we performed very well, even with the chopping and changing with subs in the second half.
“It was great to see John (Mahon) back on the pitch. He’s a local lad who loves the club and you could see by the reception he received when he came on, how well regarded he is amongst our supporters. His recovery has been steady but we need to ease him back in.
“Neither he or Conor will be involved on Monday but we’re hopeful they’ll be ready for a few competitive minutes in the next few weeks.”
David Goulden