League of Ireland: Derry City v Bray Wanderers (Fri)

Gerard Doherty has been appointed the new Derry captain

Derry boss Kenny Shiels has told his players the best way to pay tribute to former captain Ryan McBride is by performing at their best as they return to action against Bray Wanderers.

The Candystripes host Bray on Friday in their first game since McBride's death.

After winning their opening four matches, Derry are currently second behind Cork City but a defeat at Maginn Park would see Bray move above them.

Gerard Doherty will captain the side after he was appointed the new skipper.

"It's blatantly obvious that we bring Gerard in as captain," Shiels said. "He's got all the qualities and he'll be a different type of captain to Ryan."

Ahead of their first match since the 4-0 win over Drogheda United a fortnight ago, the Derry manager has called on his team to try and remove the emotion from the occasion and play for the club and the jersey instead of their former team-mate.

"You go on but you don't move on," Shiels said. "You go on and you carry him with you."

"We're not doing anything for Ryan. We're doing it for us, that's the terminology. Ryan is us, he's part of us, the supporters are 'us'; the players, the staff, the management, the directors, the people who do the work behind the scenes - that's 'us'."

City should be able to call on Rory Patterson, Ben Doherty and Conor McDermott once again. Patterson and Doherty have both been sidelined since the opening night win over Bohemians.

Bray are currently in fifth place in the table with three wins from their opening six games of the campaign, having invested heavily in their squad during the off-season.

"They're a good team," said Shiels. "Gary McCabe has come in from Shamrock Rovers and Aaron Greene has come in from Limerick. They've made a lot of good acquisitions and if they beat us they move into second so they've got all those incentives to do well and it's going to be a hard game."

"We've got to beat Bray because we're challenging for Europe. That's the incentive for us. It's an important game for one simple reason, and this sounds a bit cruel, but we need to win to stay in second place."

"The family is coming down, which is great, and we want to pay tribute to them. But the only way to pay tribute to the family is to perform well and win the game. Anything less will feel like a void within us."

Meanwhile, Derry City's matches against Limerick and Galway United have been rearranged.

The Limerick fixture has been rescheduled for Monday 24 April at Maginn Park, with a kick-off time of 19:45.

The match against Galway United has been rescheduled for Monday 8 May at Eamonn Deacy Park, also at 19:45.