Ruaidhri Higgins is hoping that Derry City can make more Dalymount Park memories when they meet Bohemians in the Semi-Final of the FAI Cup on Friday evening (7.45pm).
The Dublin ground has been a home away from home for the Candystripes throughout their League of Ireland history and has been especially good to Higgins as both a player and a manager.
This will be the third time that Derry have met Bohs in an FAI Cup Semi-Final, two of which were at Dalymount, and all three ties have been won by the men from the north west.
Even as manager, Higgins has won five of his eight games at Dalymount, losing just once.
“I don’t know, I don’t have a clue. As a player, I have a lot of good memories there as well,” said Higgins when quizzed on where such a record stems from.
“I remember Mark Farren used to score a lot of goals as well. When I think about Dalymount Park, I always think about Mark, for that reason, but a lot of our players have done well down there, so hopefully we can reproduce that type of form down there on Friday.”
“There’s been a lot of drama in the games down there and, knowing their staff the way I do, they’ll definitely come out and try and win the game, which should make for an entertaining game.”
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The City manager made a point of expressing his faith in his players, who he fully believes will bounce back from last Friday’s defeat to Drogheda United.
“We were obviously disappointed the last night, that goes without saying,” he acknowledged.
“It was a tough one to take, it was a kick in the ribs, there’s no doubt about that, but in football, unless it’s the very last game of the season, you’ve always got an opportunity to bounce back and we have an opportunity to do that.
“We’ve shown the capacity to do that over and over again, when questions have been asked, when these players have always come out the other end and always showed a side to themselves that people might not give them that much credit for.”
City could find themselves in the unusual position of having more than half of their Premier Division opponents cheer them on tonight.
With just six points separating third and seventh place, the fight for a European place is heating up.
However, should Derry go on to win the trophy for the second time in three years, an extra space will open up in fourth, leaving teams with an extra opportunity to take money-spinning Conference League berth.
“I remember being at the Final (in 2013), when me and Barry Molloy went down, and did a charity cycle before the Final between Drogheda and Sligo, and (Joseph) N’Do scooped it over the wall for Anthony Elding to finish,” Higgins remembered.
“It got us into Europe and we were running about the Aviva like two eejits.
“We’re in the position that we’re in, and we still have a lot of work to do to get what we want to achieve out of the season, so we don’t have time to think about anyone else.”