Candystripes target sweet finish to season after worrying slump

DERRY City head to Limerick this evening (7.45pm) hoping to avoid their sixth successive league defeat but manager Kenny Shiels is refusing to give up on qualifying for next season’s Europa League.

It is a tall order for the Candystripes, but defender Jamie McDonagh believes that with a maximum 12 points from the final four games, anything can happen.

“We’re going to try and win the next four games and see where that leaves us,” he said.

“We don’t want to just give up with four games to go because there are 12 points to play for and you don’t know what can happen so obviously we want to go and win every game and see where it takes us. It’s out of our hands but we’ll try and win the rest of our games.”

McDonagh was part of the squad which won the EA Sports League Cup last month, the club’s first piece of silverware in six years. But since then, City have been eliminated from the FAI Cup and fallen to league defeats against Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk.

“The day of the cup final was a great day but literally the next day we were back to work and preparing for the Bohs (FAI Cup) game so there wasn’t a lot of time to let it sink in and enjoy the moment so I don’t think the lads got to enjoy it the way they should have,” he admitted.

“It was disappointing to go out against Bohs and to go from such a high to such a low within days. It doesn’t feel like we won the cup because of the form we’ve had afterwards.”

Meanwhile, McDonagh is the latest player to express his desire to remain at Derry City. He has been strongly linked with a move to Irish League side Larne.

“I plan to be here next season,” he explained.

“As for the Larne thing, I followed Larne on Twitter because my mate played for them and I wanted to keep a check on how they were doing, and so somebody has made up a rumour.”