Sean Hoare wants to finish a big week on a high after warning the league that Shamrock Rovers are only getting started.
The Hoops go to arch enemies Bohemians tonight looking for a fifth win in a row - and the third in a week after seeing off Dundalk and St Pat’s in recent days.
In doing so, they have whittled down Derry City’s six-point lead to a single point going into tonight’s matches, where the Candystripes host UCD.
Derry lost at home to Shels a week ago and were held away to Drogheda on Monday, after which Ruaidhri Higgins was at pains to claim that Rovers’ form wasn’t his concern.
Mind games perhaps, or protesting too much. Either way, the momentum that the champions are generating won’t be lost on Derry - or anyone else for that matter.
Bohs have been inconsistency personified this season but were resounding 4-1 winners away to Shels on Monday and are unbeaten in their last four games.
They will try to put up a roadblock for a Rovers team who are already six points clear of St Pat’s in third - and who won the league by 16 points last season.
But centre-back Hoare is determined to see Rovers finish the week with nine points from nine as they prepare to enter the lion’s den tonight.
Hoare said: “I think this round of games especially, we’ve upped the gears and controlled games more.
“We played well in the last round of games I suppose, but we weren’t really taking chances or anything like that. I definitely think we’ve upped the gears now.
“These are a tough three games to have, but we just have to deal with it. We made changes against Dundalk and anyone can start in this team.
“That’s one of the advantages when we have a big squad.
“But you can’t be thinking ‘Oh, we won it last year by 16 points.' If you think you're going to win it by that much, you won’t at all. You’ll trip up.”
Hoare continued: “Looking back on this time last year it was so different – Sligo Rovers were up there.
“A lot can change in two or three rounds so look, if Derry are still up there at the end they've obviously done something right.
“We're just trying to beat everyone as they come. I’m looking forward to tonight. It’ll be a good atmosphere.
“Bohs won on Monday, a good win. I think form goes out the window in these games and they’ll definitely be up for it.”
Hoare is playing a leading role in a Rovers rearguard that no longer calls on Joey O’Brien’s experience after he retired to become Damien Duff’s No 2 at Shelbourne.
And Hoare - a four-time title winner with Rovers, twice with Dundalk and also with St Pat’s - feels it’s now a settled back three alongside Roberto Lopes and Lee Grace.
Hoare also has the bragging rights - for now anyway, with his one and only goal - in the trio’s season-long bet as to who will score more goals.
“The three of us are big and we can header balls, so we have a little bet between us. I’ve one and the others don't, so it's a bit of banter between us,” he laughed.
"We do have a few quid on it, the three of us. Pico will tell you that. We just want to outscore the other one."
But Hoare feels the defenders should be weighing in with more goals, adding: “I suppose so with the amount of corners we get and the deliveries are unbelievable.
“Other teams know that threat and get on to it. So hopefully we can contribute as well.”
Hoare is playing on the right side of the back three but will do a job anywhere.
He said: “I like the middle position as well, so when Pico is missing - he was missing a lot last year with the international stuff - I went in there nicely and enjoyed it.
“But really we just want clean sheets at the other end. Against Dundalk on Monday, it was only a matter of time before we got the goal and we hung on well.
“Us defenders take pride in a 1-0 win especially - it makes the clean sheet all the more important.”
Hoare would snap your hand off for another one of those tonight but Ali Coote believes that the "real Bohs" will show up at Dalymount Park.
Their campaign to date has been marked by inconsistency as well as manager Keith Long overseeing the rebuilding of his side following a raft of winter departures and arrivals.
But Monday’s emphatic 4-1 victory at Shelbourne underlined the ruthlessness that does exist in this side that also beat Sligo at The Showgrounds three weeks ago.
“We’ve only lost two games and have been putting points on the board although obviously not as many as we would have liked,” said Coote,
“Hopefully we can build on Monday and show the fans that the real Bohs are back. The win at Shels was exactly what we needed after this string of results that didn’t really go our way.”
