Brian Maher reckons Derry City could have done without UCD being spanked in Cork on Friday.
College were stuffed 4-0 by the Rebels at Turner’s Cross and dropped to the foot of the Premier Division as a result.
They want to bounce back tonight by scalping the high-flying Candystripes who set the early pace after winning away to Shamrock Rovers.
Derry won all four of last season’s games with UCD, but their last visit there was an edgy 1-0 win from the penalty spot that snapped a costly seven-game winless streak.
Goalkeeper Maher said: “UCD are going to demand a response to Friday and it’s always tough going there.
“You sometimes need a moment of magic at UCD. It’s a tough place to play.
“Every year, people expect them not to be as good as the previous year but they keep producing players.
“Every away game is a different challenge, especially for us doing two trips to Dublin in three days. We didn’t do that last year.”
There were 7,626 fans in Tallaght on Friday to witness Derry’s 2-1 win over the champions but only a fraction of that will be at the Bowl tonight.
“There will be a lot of talk about that but it serves a different challenge,” added Maher, the Ireland U21 goalkeeper in the recent European Championship campaign.
“It’s impossible not to be up for a game like the one in Tallaght and it can be difficult going to grounds like UCD but we’ve to treat it exactly the same way.”
But Maher insists nobody in the Derry camp is getting carried away with the victory over Rovers and stopped short of calling it a statement win.
“We’re not looking at it that way,” he continued. “It’s a big win for us and to finally get that win in Tallaght is great but it's only the third game of the season.
“We can’t get carried away. We know with the quality Shamrock Rovers have that they’ll put a run of wins together at any time.
“We’ve more depth this year, especially when we get the injured boys back but we have to keep winning games ourselves, starting with a big one tonight.”
