Shane McEleney says Derry City must ready themselves for battle in Drogheda

Rovers reminded their title rivals exactly why they've won three-in-a-row championships with a comprehensive 2-0 victory on Foyleside on Bank Holiday Monday.

The Maiden City was in fine tune over the weekend celebrating the annual Jazz festival but it ended in a sour note for Ruaidhri Higgins' troops who were left feeling the blues after a one-sided affair where a sensational goal from Richie Towell and Jack Byrne's strike into an empty net in the first half decided the match.

"If you give good players time they're going to hurt you," said McEleney. "That's the long and short of it. He (Byrne) put a great ball in and it's a good finish from Towell who caught it first time. but the first half performance just wasn't us."

The performance brought Derry crashing back down to earth following back-to-back league wins and McEleney warned they must be 'ready to fight' for three important points when they visit Drogheda this Friday night.

"We have to swallow our pride and look forward to Friday because it's going to be a tough game down in Drogheda," said the defender.

"By no means are we going to go there and think we're going to wipe the floor with them.

"We have to give them respect, like every team, like every game. There's no easy games in this league. We have to dust ourselves down and focus on Drogheda."

With Rovers entertaining league leaders Bohemians in Tallaght on Friday, it's an opportunity for Derry to make up lost ground at the top of the table.

However, McEleney isn't taking anything for granted against a well organised Boynesiders' outfit who also claimed three points at Brandywell when the teams last met early last month.

"We have to focus on the next one and as I said, swallow our pride. Up until Monday night we had conceded the least amount of goals in the league.

"We have to batten down the hatches again and look forward to Drogheda. It's a tight pitch, it will be congested, they're well organised and we have to go down there and be ready to fight for three points."

Derry came out 'swinging' in the second half of the 2-0 loss to Rovers but were blowing hot air in the final third and McEleney says the players must 'stand up and be counted' if they're to turn it around in Co. Louth this weekend.

"I thought the performance in the first half just wasn't us. I thought we were too stand-offish at times.

" If we go in at 1-0 down it could've been a different game but we conceded just before half-time and it was a poor enough goal from our behalf.

"It just left us with too much to do. We came out swinging in the second half to be fair to the boys, they were committed and we gave it a good go but it just wasn't enough on the night.

"We didn't create enough," he agreed. "I think Cian (Kavanagh) had a half chance at the back post.

"Mickey (Duffy) had a header in the first half and obviously we had the penalty. If we scored the penalty it could've been different as there was nine minutes added on and the crowd would've been behind us with a wee bit of momentum.

"It's a case of should've, would've, could've. Ben (Doherty) buried one last week and it takes a lot of courage to go up and hit a penalty. He scored one last week and missed this evening - that's football at times!"

Derry were missing experienced players who could potentially have made all the difference against Rovers but McEleney insists there's no point dwelling on the injured list and says the players available must 'knuckle down' and turn things around.

"Those players are going to help us. Obviously they are experienced players, Mark (Connolly), Patrick (McEleney) and (Cameron) Dummigan have been around various leagues. I know they're going to help us but they're not there at the minute so the players that are on the pitch, myself included, need to stand up and be counted. It's a squad game.

"We can't wait to get those bodies back but they're not here at the minute and I'm not sure if they'll be here for Friday so we just have to knuckle down and go down to Drogheda and try to get a positive result."