Duff’s Side Gears Up for Crucial Clash with St Pat’s | OneFootball

The Reds are back at Tolka Park tomorrow night for what will be a sold out Dublin Derby [ LIMITED TICKETS REMAIN GET YOURS NOW ] against St Patrick’s Athletic (7:45pm – live on LOITV)

Damien Duff’s side look to get back to winning ways in front of their home fans as their Dublin rivals make the short jaunt across the city.

Duff delivered some good news on the injury front on Thursday evening: “Quick turnaround, which you can see two ways, sometimes you want time to digest it, other times it’s better to dive straight back in. We’re the latter. The lads recovered, had a day off on Wednesday, and we’re back on the pitch after that today, really good session.

“Paddy Barrett’s back on the grass. There’s a game in mind where he’ll come back in and start, but that won’t be tomorrow. We won’t rush him. The good news is we’ve already got a date ringed in the calendar. Initially, there was a fear he’d be out until after the break, he’ll be back before it, he had a scan and got some good news, so to have him back before the break is great.”

Tolka Park is on the cusp of a sell-out, Duff feels there is no better game to come into after two disappointing results:

“Perfect game, no excuses. There might be a bit of doom and gloom about some people, but the lads have done so much right. Any little mistake gets punished. This isn’t a time to feel sorry for ourselves or to go under. It’s time to work hard, that’s all I know. That’s all the players know. We will. We get knocked down, stick together, get back up and keep going. It’s very simple.”

Tyreke Wilson offered a player’s perspective on a disappointing defeat on Monday, Duff hailed the defender’s honesty when speaking to Shelbourne FC’s YouTube channel:

“Tyreke is always honest in his assessment of how he’s doing and how the team is performing. It’s not surprising. Like I said, it’s been a good week, everyone is ready and prepared. Great energy around the place.”

This is the second meeting between the sides, with the Reds drawing 0-0 in Richmond Park earlier this season. Reflecting on that result Duff said:

“Very good performance, the second half in particular we played really well with the ball and could’ve won the game. We haven’t won in five, but in other years or seasons, three or four of those performances would’ve been enough to win. Going into tomorrow night, all we can concentrate on is performance, performance, performance. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. Get back to winning ways.”

“Look at our results, might suggest we’re not in form. But if you look at how we started the other day, the energy, on a hot day, early kick-off, quick turnaround, the chances we had, it was more than enough to win the game. The performance probably merited taking three points from the game. At the end of the day it boils down to one metric. Forget about crosses, shots, possession, etc. The scoreline, being on the right side of it — that’s the only thing that matters.”

There’s a familiar feeling for Duff as the Reds navigate a tricky patch, he sees shades of how things were transpiring before the run in, which eventually ended in glory:

“It does feel familiar — a lot like when we finished off the league title with three games to go. What did we do then? We stayed calm, kept working hard, and kept things nice and simple. We haven’t overthought anything. We’re just focusing on what we’re doing, trusting our process, and knowing that more often than not, when our performances stand up, and are at the levels we know we can operate at, the results take care of themselves.”