Cork City's players have been urged to react with a big display against St Pat's at Richmond Park - after what Richie Holland describes as one of their worst performances of the season.
Last week's clash with Drogheda was billed as a six-pointer but the Leesiders had to fight to scrape a draw.
"The performance on Friday wasn't acceptable in terms of energy levels, in terms of our application to go and try to win a big football match, I don't think it was anywhere near the level that we've set," said the interim assistant boss.
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"I think the lads know themselves that we need to be better. You're coming into a big game like that and a lot of players didn't perform, and it just wasn't good enough.
"You want your team to play better than that. You want a performance that the Cork public are looking at and saying, 'That's our Cork City, that's the team we see week in, week out, the lads are giving 100%'.
"I'm not saying they didn't give 100%, I'm just saying it was one of those nights when it was flat, that there was no spark. It's probably one of the best points of the season because, touch wood, I don't think that we could play any worse than we did.
"So on Friday we're looking for a reaction in terms of energy and application, in terms of quality on the ball and hopefully that we can go on and get three points."
City will have to improve because they are travelling to face a Saints team that has climbed to second, four points behind Shamrock Rovers at the top of the table.
"It is going to be a difficult game," Holland said. "They all are, but I would say that we've shown that we can compete with the best in the League. It's just getting that consistency.
"We just need to bring our game back to what it was probably before the break, so that we can compete and hopefully get the three points."
