Loughgall game is more important than Glens – Canning

DERGVIEW boss Tommy Canning insists Saturday’s Lough 41 Championship game against Loughgall United at Darragh Park is much more important than last weekend’s Irish Cup clash against Glentoran.

The fifth round Irish Cup tie was the biggest football game ever staged in Castlederg and the hosts played their full part in a five-goal thriller which the Glens shaded 3-2.

As big an occasion as that was Canning insists it’s now water under the bridge and his players need to turn their full focus on trying to finish the season in the top six.

Dergview have 10 games left to achieve that goal starting with the visit of Loughgall on Saturday.

“Saturday is bigger than the Glens game,” said the Derg supremo.

“We need to put a serious run together if we are intent on finishing in the top six. We need to be every bit as good as we were in the second half against Glentoran because if we’re not we’ll get turned over.

“We need to put the hype and excitement of last weekend behind us. It’s gone now and in fairness the players put in a good training shift on Monday night. We’ll go again on Thursday and prepare for what will be a very tough game.”

Loughgall are currently fourth, four points behind second placed Ballinamallard United and Annagh United but do have two games in hand of the Mallards. The Lakeview Park men are on a decent run although Dean Smith’s team went down 2-0 to Ballymena United in the Irish Cup last time out.

The last time the sides met was in the middle of October when a 45th minute strike by Dergview striker Benny Igiehon was the only goal of the game.
Igiehon returns for the Derg men after serving a one-game suspension and that’s good news for Canning who revealed that Cathal Farren could be out for up to a month after picking up a knock against the Glens.

“Benny will be back in for Saturday which is a plus but unfortunately Cathal could be out for a number of weeks,” continued the Derg chief.

“We need to stay at the level we finished last week and take that into the game. What we don’t want is things to nose dive after the cup.

“We have 10 games remaining to secure a top half finish, we want to attack that and not allow our standards to drop.”