Candystripes look to finish job off against Skonto

Candystripes look to finish job off against Skonto

Derry City lay their plans for advancement in the UEFA Europa League qualifier ...
23rd Jul 2009

European football returns to the Brandywell Stadium this evening when Derry City host Skonto of Latvia (7pm).

Having recorded a 1-1 draw in Riga, the Candystripes are in a good position to advance to the Third Qualifying Round of the Europa League tonight. A win or a scoreless draw would put Stephen Kenny’s side through.

Goalkeeper Ger Doherty believes the team is strong enough to finish the job this evening - something he believes they could have done in the first leg.

"We’ve got to go out and put them under a bit of pressure," said Doherty. "We know we have the ability to score against them, as we did over there.

"We just have to do what we did over there, get a decent result and get through. We definitely could have won the game out there. We had a couple of chances at the end of the game. They died off in the last 10 minutes.

"To be fair to the boys, our fitness looked decent. We gave them a wee bit too much respect in the first 10 or 15 minutes. After we went a goal down, we settled and we judged it right.

"We got a good goal just before half-time, it was a good time to score. We showed no fear then in the second half and we could have gone on and got a win."

Derry City will be without Liam Kearney and Mark McChrystal. However, Clive Delaney returns to the first team