Experienced trio may return

The Drumahoe club were second best throughout at the Showgrounds and assistant manager Paul Carlyle is expecting a dramatic improvement this evening.

Nevertheless Carlyle also knows that the Castlederg men will be full of confidence after securing an impressive 4-0 win at Loughgall on Saturday.

“With Dergview getting their first victory of the season on Saturday and what a win it was for them at Loughgall, their tails will be up,” admitted Carlyle.

“They have home advantage and with it like being a local derby and with them having a few players who have been involved with us before it will mean we’ll have to be on top of our game.

“They have a few players who can cause us damage, but the bottom dollar is that we have lost our last game and we have to galvanise ourselves for the match, in fact that is what I asked the players after the Newry game, if they are capable of doing that.”

The Waterside men may have defender Paddy McLaughlin back from injury, midfielder Aaron Walsh should be available and experienced defender Joe Gray could be back in the squad along with striker Stephen Parkhouse, however Ryan Semple misses out as he starts the first of his six match ban.

“Joe will hopefully be back, Aaron will be OK and we’ll have to see how Paddy is as he’s struggling with an ankle problem.

“Parkhouse has come back into the equation; if Parky gets himself fit and because he’s a good professional he knows that he needs to have a certain fitness level and to be fair he won’t want to play until he has got that fitness level up, but he’s getting there.

“If I’m to be honest I will probably use him in the Ardstraw game, but because he’s back on board and has been training really well, I feel he needs another two weeks, but with players knowing that he’s on his way back is good for competition for places.”

Following Saturday’s terrible loss at Newry City, Carlyle admitted that training will be upped and that is something he admits is surprising as the season has only started.

“We are going to up the training regime and I shouldn’t be saying that as the season has started, but there are a few players who need to do that wee bit more.”