Suspension and injury hamper Derry City's attempts to make it a clean sweep of four wins over Dublin City at the Brandywell tonight. Defender Clive Delaney and winger Gareth McGlynn are banned while Seán Hargan remains out with a foot injury.

Midfielder Ruairdhi Higgins, who has broken into the side in the last few games, is a doubt with a knee injury.

Their 1-0 home defeat to Cork City on Tuesday ended Derry's five-match unbeaten run - Kevin Doyle's winner was the first goal they had conceded in over seven hours of football.

"The main thing is formulating and organising the squad for next season," said Derry manager Stephen Kenny. "We are having a look at things and we have been experimenting a little bit, but we still want to win as many games as possible to try and finish as high as we can."

Dublin City, with just one win since manager Roddy Collins came in 11 matches ago, are as good as down if they lose. "The results are not going our away and that's unfortunate," said Collins, who refuses to throw in the towel.

"I haven't given up hope and I won't until it is mathematically gone, because football is such a strange business. But anyone in their right mind would say that we're down. If I was an outsider looking in I would say, 'yes, they're down'. But from where I'm coming from and considering the players I'm working with, and the belief they have, and how close we've been the last couple of games to getting another win, it's only a matter of time before we do.

"Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later and we can bring the deficit down, then see what happens. But it's out of our hands, and we don't need to be told that."

Waterford United's home game with Shamrock Rovers, postponed on Friday night due to flooding in the south-east, has been refixed for tomorrow with a 2 p.m. kick-off, pending a 9 a.m. pitch inspection at the RSC.