 So it's time to talk League of Ireland football as we do each and every week here on Highland on our score program and former Fanharps captain Declan Boyle has joined us once again. Declan, good to talk to you again on Highland. Good to be back, Matthew. Well, we're looking into the games that will take place on Friday, Fanharps and Derry City, both in action. I suppose we'll start with Harps. These games, Ollie Horgan says that these games are big every week, but they're starting to get a bit bigger now, so they are given that Harps haven't won a match since they played Waterford. I was down in Waterford in the middle of May, Declan, and they haven't just struck that same form that we've seen them hit at the start of the campaign. So how big is this game then? Friday night on the road against Drawhada in your mind? Yeah, I think Ollie's probably correct when he says it's a big match for them. It's important to try to get a one or pick up three points somewhere. Drawhada are obviously up doing well at home, and I picked up a lot of points, and I've been formidable this year, and obviously they beat Harps here in the season in the fan park there as well. 2-1 with the last minute goal from Dan Massey, and I think the first game up in Drawhada was also a 1-1 draw. So this is important to pick up three points from somewhere and just give them a bit of confidence, just not getting the breaks. A lot of injuries as well in the squad, and that's affecting the performance on the pitch. You just need to get three points from somewhere. Obviously they've waterfired at home as well, they'll be up and tired of that for a home one, but it's really important to concentrate on Drawhada, but it'll not be an easy match, and even if they get a draw up, tends to be a very good result up there. Yeah, but is it a game that they can take the fall points on deck when things start to fall right for them, because just sort of weed decisions and when things happen on the field, just haven't been going their way up late? No, that's correct, and they haven't got the breaks. Even last week against Longford for the performance, it wasn't brilliant, they've probably done enough on the day to get three points. Obviously the penalty was a big, you know, I've stuck that away probably, and by and by can be converts that penalty, they probably go on to 1-2-1. The first goal, and there aren't dogs as well, I looked offside, so I'm a strange one from the referee, and maybe he's seen something that I didn't see, but yeah, those kinds of decisions have gone against you, and then you know, you bring down and weave it up with no injuries and suspension coming on board as well, and that just affects you, but a few players have left the squad, so just leaves that weave it down in numbers and quality on the bench to make changes. And yeah, that's David Webster, that's the last three games, and I think, you know, he's a big player for them, and we can get him back fit, and then the team, I think, he made a big difference, even though the Johnny Dunleavy's come on and done very well and left back. Harps, Ollie Horgan said rather that it wasn't looking into the transfer market, that was a number a weeks ago, but things have changed very, very quickly. I'm sure the Harps boss now will be keeping an eye on who's available and who he can bring in, because it doesn't, as you say, have the same squad available to him now, as we go into the month of July. No, the squad's definitely depleted. I know, if you look at the quality they had in the start of 11, also on the bench, they've lost players, Matt Russell's gone away, Ryan Shanley's gone back to Scotland as well, there's two that have left the club, and there's a few more that have left as well, so it's important, you know, I've no doubt that Ollie's playing that down on the wee bit, I would say, is looking to bring in a wee bit of quality, and the top end of the pitch just to convert things, or another midfielder potentially as well. So you're always looking to bring in a wee bit of quality, and what's important is from things, maybe you're not going the way you want them to go, and you're out of luck on the wee bit, and some decision making you want to begin a player with a wee bit of quality, that'll give the players that are really there, a wee lift to bring them forward. I suppose throughout the whole season they've been very good, they've played very well, the funds at home have been excellent, results haven't gone away, but now they had a wee blip, they had a really good start, and a wee blip now is important just to get through that blip and push on from there as they see themselves, and you know, this is a big match in draw, let's try to get something out of the game, if not three points, and then bring that into the Waterford match next week at home. Yeah, and I suppose it's amazing what three points can do, if you haven't had three points in quite a number of weeks, if it was to happen tomorrow night, decide we get a massive lift out of it, Declan. Of course, yeah, absolutely, because sports is all about confidence, and the more positive results, the better players play, and that's as evident in front of goals or missing chances as well, and selecting a wee bit of composure, they've got and had opportunities to win the games, and they just haven't converted them, that has an effect obviously, they're getting sucked in now to obviously to Longford and also to Waterford, and you want to keep the distance between them as much as possible, but if you can get two or three points on the bounce, one, two or three games, actually it can mean such a difference, meaning you can get six points or two games, that gives you such a lift, and it gets you back into the middle of the table and gives everybody around the club a lift, but also the players the confidence to go on and finish out the season and read positive notes. Yeah, and they'll be looking for the northwest sides to help them out this weekend, Derry are at the Brandywell, taking on Waterford, Derry were unlucky not to come away at Oriole Park the last day with something deck, and just a second the feet on the Rory Higgins, but as Derry looked to take three points against Waterford, the Derry City Manager isn't hanging around in relation to Signings because he's had a very, very busy week, Declan. They have, and I suppose listening to that, it's a great thing to have for Oriole to get the support of his chairperson and the funding to do so, and you know that makes a hell of a difference, I mean, Jimmy McGonagall's come in there from Crusader, so he can play up top, but he also can play out wide, and I think that's important because David Park has been up playing up there centre forward, he's just not getting the ammunition or the opportunities, and hopefully Jimmy can come in there and give them a nap, and now Jimmy himself, he probably goes sort of from Nairie's league, so we'll be interested to see how he fares out, I mean, the reason 35,000 is supposed to be spent on bringing them in from Crusader, just a lot of money in League of Ireland circuit to buy a player, and so it'll be interesting to see how he hits the ground running, but has scored a lot of goals, so it comes with a lot of potential, obviously Cameron Mcjannard as well, and James Zachentum, they have signed 18 multi-extensions as a contract, and they also signed three of the young academy players who were involved in the first team as well as a professional contract for the first time, so that's really positive, really good that they're securing, and they're given a long-term contract, so that's important to players in regards to their welfare, but also planning ahead, and you know, people nowadays are professional people and they have mortgages or bills to pay, they need to have some security, so that's great, but it also means that they have these players for the next three to four years, which is great, the club. There's rumours rife at the moment, there could be another edition in the next couple of days now. As we speak Declan, there's not an official here, but Junior in some sort of way has been linked with a move back to the brandywell, if that was to happen, and it is the case, how big a lift would that be for Derry on the goalscoring front? Yeah, that's a big lift, he had an excellent season there two seasons ago, with Derry's study when he played along with Parkhouse between the two and the 30 goalscoring season, so that he will bring them a lift, he can play up top, he can play out wide or right or left, so that will obviously give them more quality in those areas, and strengthen those areas, because that's probably an area that they haven't done that well in all year, they've relied heavily on set plays for their goals, so they haven't played, they haven't scored too many goals from open plays, so after he'd bring that quality and penetration to the team, if he comes, he left off to Derry's study and he went to Slaggo, didn't go so well on Slaggo, then he was worried he was supposed to come back to Derry's study and then he ended up signing for Dundalk, so it hasn't worked out from Dundalk, a lot of quality up there, but he'd be a welcome addition and will bring something a wee bit different up top, if they can sign them, and it's a big sign for Derry's study. Yeah, can Waterford trouble Derry tomorrow night? Waterford have been good, they've been, I suppose the new manager come in and they've done a small money pre-season there, just during the break and they've got a lot fitter, they seem to have a bit more lift and confidence and more motivation, they had a big result two weeks ago after beating Longford up in Longford and getting a 2-1 on that, because of the wee bit of distance between them and Longford, so they've beaten Dundalk on the road as well and up the Oriole and 1-3-1 as well, so they've got big results away from home. They count on good performances, I see Derry getting three points against Waterford at the weekend. Yeah, the other team below Harps and sitting below Waterford as well, as long for town, you would expect Slaggo Rovers to have too much for the Basement Club, but Harps will be looking for a result there as well that would help them along the way, but Slaggo go into this game, probably off the back of their best performance of the season, Declan? Yeah, by all accounts, there was a top, top red performance by Slaggo against Bows, who Bows were coming on good form and had a lot of big victories as well, supposed to be a smashing game with football actually, by all accounts and big performance by all the players involved on the night and they got a big victory against Bows and that gives them the confidence to push on because they went through three bad results as such and two over the bank holiday weekend and that's obviously then coming into the Bows game and they got a big victory against Bows and that keeps them up along with some parts of Shamrock Rovers on top of the table, but yeah, the last time they went and played Longford, they won 1-1 in Elbs, Gary Buckley scored a header from a corner kick, but yeah, listen, not be easy as we all know the easy games in it, but you'd be expecting them to get three points against Longford on Friday. Yeah, and they've added to their squad as well, they have taken in Shamrock Kuhl to the side, Declan, what do you make of that move? Yeah, so Shamrock has been up training along with the first team, but he's also played a few matches for the under-19s, under ourselves, so yeah, really good player, he's just, he's a Slaggome lad himself, would have played international football at 15s and 16s and 17s and won a cross to Sevham for two years and has come back here and just didn't work out from a few injuries. He's a top lad, a really good addition the team can play in midfield and the sixth or the eighth position in the player ranks as well, so he gives them a move, I suppose, make the squad a wee bit stronger, but an excellent addition to the team. Yeah, and so that means you'll, he's involved with your squad at the moment as well then, Declan, you've been keeping a close eye on him, can you play him, can you? Is he available for you? Yeah, I suppose it's, yeah listen, he can play for 19s, he's under 19s, so there's, therefore, the players that are involved in the first team as Slaggome players can play on the 19s, yeah, so Johnny Kenny would be another one, he's underage, but listen, he's been playing, so if they're not playing for the first team, they can play for the under-19s, which, you know, they need to be doing it at a regular basis, obviously to keep their fitness levels up, but yeah listen, they have some really good players and Slaggome have given good opportunities to the young lads to excel and a large part of their squad is home-based players. Yeah, will he be available for you on the game of Sunday, you saw it Sunday afternoon? The moment I'm not 100% sure, I'm not on the scene actually, so I'm not 100% sure, I would welcome, I would welcome to have him, but yeah listen, it's a difficult one because obviously Slaggome are in Europe as well actually, so there's the European and the first team have to stay within the COVID bubble as well, so they can't be involved in two squads, so probably not, probably won't be available, but hopefully whenever Slaggome are not involved in European football, hopefully I'll get them players back playing for the under-19s. Okay, I'll put you on the spot there, so we'll look at the leaders, St Patrick's Athletic, against Bohemians, Georgie Kelly will be looking to add to his, totally he's been in brilliant scoring form for Bohemians and he's up against a former side as well. It's going to be an interesting double in Derby, will Pat still be top of the table after this one, Declan? Yeah, that's an interesting one, you know, I'm in Georgie Kelly 11 goals this season, you know, he's going really well, a lot better than he'd done last year obviously, scoring goals, has that confidence, scoring big goals as well, crucial times, he's scored obviously a couple of hat-tricks as well on top of that, but he's probably been the player of the year so far in the league, so yeah, this is going to be a big threat to St Pat's. It's an interesting one, it's obviously a double in Derby and in normal circumstances, there'll be a big crowd at that game with the really good atmosphere, so it's just hard to know, I mean St Pat's don't give too much away, Bohes scored a lot of goals, so something's got to get out of there, I'm probably expecting to draw out of that one, probably, I think it'll be a scorer's draw, yeah, so. Yeah, one of the match as well, Shamrock overs against Indokbe, these two have been involved in some tremendous games, of course, in recent history. Rovers are the defending champions, it's all changed at the Indok, can the Indok get a result at the Tala Stadium? Yes, they haven't found their top-end form as much as they would want this year, Deckton, but I'm sure it's a game Indok will be up for. Yeah, that's the big match for both clubs, I suppose now, they played each other I think three times, Shamrock Rovers, they played each other in the Presidential Cup at the start of the season, that went to families and Don Dock came out on top, Shamrock Rovers beat them already one now in Tala and in order to practice, Don Dock turned over in 2-1, so for instance, I'm expecting Shamrock Rovers potentially to get three points here, but listen, you just don't know that the Don Dock team, Shamrock Rovers, Richie Tiles was coming on board, so he's available for selection, so for instance, see will he play against Don Dock, his whole club as well, so he's a welcome addition to the Shamrock Rovers squad and first team, and he's been a quality from that midfield area, maybe they're missing that a wee bit, they're not as free-flowing and scoring as much as they normally do, Shamrock Rovers, but they're getting over the line and without playing particularly well, they're still top of the table along with St Pat's and Slager Rovers, it was a big game for both clubs, very interesting to see how this is going to pan out, will we see the better Don Dock team or will we see the team that's played all year, where they've lacked a week of confidence and have lost a lot of games. Okay, listen Deckton, as always, thanks for joining us, enjoy the football at the weekend. Thank you, Ashton.