Devine fired up for Rovers showdown

DERRY City are aiming to become the first team to defeat Shamrock Rovers domestically since September 2019 when they meet at the Brandywell this evening.

Declan Devine’s team have endured a horrible start to the new season, losing three from three and they currently sit bottom of the Premier Division. Few are giving them any hope against the champions but Devine insists his men can be a match for anyone on their day.

“I’m looking forward to the game, I really am,” he said.

“It’s been so difficult over the last couple of weeks in terms of the way we’ve lost football games. It’s not acceptable, it’s not what we want to be.

“The players, we’ve spoken about it, it’s not who we are as an identity as a football team, that we’re making it easy for our opponents. That has been the key, we have lost games we shouldn’t have lost and we’ve made decisions that we shouldn’t have made.

“There is more in us, but we have got to get points on the board. We can, and I still stick by this, we can be a match for anyone on our day. We have got good players here but we have to become harder to play against, we have to be more expressive and we have got to stop making decisions in games that are costing us.”

Devine knows the pressure that he and his players are under, but he is not shying away from it.

“The pressure has to come on me. I take responsibility, it’s my job,” he acknowledged.

“You’ve got to fight, you’ve got to fight as a football club and we’ve got to fight as a city. I have to fight as the manager and the players have got to fight as players.”