Clancy's Drogheda set for Sligo test

Drogheda Utd travel west on Saturday to take on league leaders Sligo Rovers at The Showgrounds following the mid-season break.

The last game before the break saw Drogheda lose (1-2) at home to Derry with both sides ending the game with ten men.

“The levels this season, that the Premier Division requires, more concentration, mentally a lot more draining, and when you throw into the mix we’ve had a lot of injuries this season for a lot of the games, then yeah, it (the break) probably came at a good time for us," commented Drogheda manager Tim Clancy as he prepares to visit a venue where he was popular with the supporters during his stint at the Showgrounds.

“We were able to sit down and have a good week rest and we’ve got back in since last Saturday. We’ve had a good week training and hopefully we’ll be okay, on Saturday, which is going to be a very tough game away to top of the league.

“They are top of the table on merit, but we can take confidence from the reverse fixture at our ground.

"They were still ahead of us in the league, we probably should have won that game on the balance of things.

"It gives us confidence, there’s more pressure on them to win because they want to stay top of the league.

“Where we are sitting in the league at the minute is brilliant for us. We’ve got to focus on our game, and if we can get a really good performance, and our energy levels back to where they were for most of the season, I think we’ll be ok,” he added.

In team news, Jordan Adeyemo is suspended following his red card against Derry while Luke Heeney has received an additional red card suspension following his red card against Finn Harps.

Brandon Bermingham is aiming to return to training from a quad injury next week, while Hugh Douglas and Mark Hughes continue to step up their recovery from injuries.

Jake Hyland and Dinny Corcoran are available for the trip to Sligo after returning to training this week.

“Brando has been doing a lot more, he’ll be stepping it up again and all going well, he’ll be returning to full training on Monday," stated Clancy.

"Jake and Dinny trained all week so are available for Saturday. Hughie (Douglas) got treatment during the week, so we are waiting to see how he responds to that.

“Sparky (Mark Hughes) is very close, we’re hoping after the game, we can get Sparky back into full training, again it’s very close, it’s the nature of the injury he has we have to manage properly, or it can reoccur, but he’s not a million miles away,” he added.