Blues visit Drumahoe tonight

The Waterside men go into the game low in confidence after they suffered their fifth straight league defeat at Portadown, on Tuesday night; despite this boss John Gregg remains upbeat going into this evening's game and is equally as confident that his team will avoid dropping into the Ladbrokes.com Championship.

"People think we are done, we are meant to be on our knees and as far as everyone else is concerned we have one foot already in the First Division," he said.

"But that's big, big motivation for us to prove everybody wrong and shut the doubters up.

"Yes, we're struggling at the wrong end of the table but it's so important that the players, the Board of Directors and the supporters stick together. It's down to everyone to play their part as the season draws to a close as that's the only way we will survive.

"As a club we've made major cut-backs this season, but for the right reasons, and we're going to get on with it. A good result in our game in hand against Linfield would prove a fantastic boost for us, but after this weekend we have five matches playing in our league against teams in a similar position to ourselves and it's in those matches that we must make our presence felt."

Gregg also knows that David Jeffrey will be expecting a positive response from his players following their shock mid-week home defeat to Glenavon.

"Their shock defeat by Glenavon gives other teams a chance of winning the title and, no doubt, David Jeffrey will be anxious to build a five points gap as the league moves into the latter stages," he added.

"But we're not going to lie down or anything like that. Unlike Linfield, we're now involved in a relegation dogfight and, therefore, every point becomes a prisoner. A favourable result in the Linfield game would help build our confidence levels and that's what we will be trying to achieve."

Going into the match 'Stute have major injury doubts over Declan Divin, Kevin Ramsey and Ruairi Boyle, while duo Thomas Wray and Ryan Semple are both struggling with flu and groin problems respectively.

"Decky won't make it as he's struggling with an ankle injury, while if I play both Kevin and Ruairi there is a good chance that they might be out for four or five weeks," confirmed Gregg.

"Tommy Wray will hopefully come back into the squad after recovering from the flu, but then again Graham Crown was excellent at Portadown on Tuesday night; he was fantastic against Owen Morrison, who's a good Irish League player, and not so long ago was across the water playing for Sheffield Wednesday, so even though Graham's a young kid he might deserve to keep the jersey."