Russell Ready for Tolka Double-Header | OneFootball

Shelbourne FC Head Coach John Russell is on the eve of two highly significant home games, as Derry City and then Drogheda United visit Tolka Park. As he prepares for the challenge ahead, Russell caught up with ShelsTV.

“First and foremost, we must try and win Friday’s game. Obviously, we will have to manage the squad, not just over Friday and Monday, but also Friday week. But we can’t afford to look too far ahead; we need to win the game that’s in front of us and see where we are after that. So our full focus right now is to try and beat Derry on Friday. We’re at that stage of the season now, there are eight games left and we know the importance of three points. Momentum is huge and if you start winning games, the knocks you get don’t feel as sore!”

Shels have been on the road for the past two weeks and Russell feels that being back in front of the Tolka Park crowd could be a significant factor going into the double-header: “We had two tough away fixtures where I thought we played well in both games, but I’m excited to get back home in front of our fans again and to get that boost that they give us. But we need to give them something too; we need to be high-energy and to look like we want to win the game. It’s always an advantage when we have our home support backing us and we need to feed into that by giving them big moments – be it tackles, blocks, forward runs or goals. If we do that, I know that they will give us that extra lift from the stands.”

The Shels Head Coach was happy to report that no new injuries had been accrued of late: “We’re in a good place. We’re going to have the same squad going into this game on Friday as we had last Friday, which is pleasing. The only two outstanding injuries remain John (Martin) and Sam (Bone), who are both working hard to try and get back to fitness as soon as possible and hopefully they’re not too far away.”

Both Derry and Drogheda currently sit below The Reds in the league table, and Russell stressed that getting points on the board and closing the gap on those above them is the focus: “It’s a huge opportunity that’s in front of us; three games in a week with nine points at stake. We know if we play to our levels and start becoming killers in front of goal that we can go on a run. We were happy to keep a clean sheet on Friday (vs Shamrock Rovers) which we will need to do more of, but we’ve also been creating chances in every game. We’ve been getting stronger and slicker in our movements and I feel like we’re coming into a good stage now to start putting winning performances together. We have players coming back from long-term injuries who are getting back towards their best now, and we will need them to help us perform to our best because we know that this league is ruthless.”

Having not played in front of the Tolka Park faithful since that epic draw against Ajax almost a month ago, Russell finished with a word for the importance of the supporters heading into the weekend: “We need the fans to bring the noise and get right behind the team. The performances in that Ajax game and since have been good, but we’re going to need our fans’ help from tomorrow until the end of the season. We want Tolka Park to be an intimidating place for the opposition and we want an atmosphere that can help to spur us on to victory. We know what’s at stake here, there are eight games to go – we believe we can go on a run, and we want to start that on Friday.”

Kick-off on Friday is 7.45 and the game is live on LOITV.