Derry City boss Ruaidhrí Higgins: No silly risks ahead of cup final
Derry City manager Ruaidhrí Higgins has said that he won't be taking any risks with his injury-hit side when title-chasing Shelbourne visit the Ryan McBride Brandywell on Friday.
Up until a 1-0 defeat to St Patrick's Athletic last week, Derry had aspirations of lifting the league trophy themselves, but the club's attention has instead turned to next weekend's Sports Direct Men's FAI Cup Final against Drogheda United.
The Candystripes still have a big part to play in the title race, as victory or a draw against Damien Duff's Shels would see Shamrock Rovers crowned champions, if the Hoops overcome Waterford at home on the final night.
Derry's key quartet of Pat Hoban, Patrick McEleney, Mark Connolly and Ciaran Coll have all been injured during the title run-in and Higgins has suggested that he won't be taking any risks with the cup final playing on his mind.
"Obviously we have some injury concerns following on from last week." he said. "Having said that we'll still have a good enough team on the pitch to try and win a game of football.
"We won't be taking unnecessary or silly risks. I don't think that would make any sense. We'll still have a really good team on the pitch and a team that's capable of winning the game."
Higgins admitted that he has had to lift the mood after his side were knocked out of title contention but he was quick to praise Duff for taking Shelbourne to the brink of their major honour since 2006.
"There's no point in lying, it's human nature that it was an extremely tough weekend but as the week's gone on, we've got them going again and I've no doubt that they'll be ready come Friday," Higgins said.
"They deserve an awful lot of credit. Over the three years, they've built and built and got to this point. Such