Search

06 Sept 2025

'Collie Whelan is a special story' - Ruaidhri Higgins delighted with Derry City striker

Derry City

Ruaidhri Higgins congratulates Colm Whelan after he scored his first goal for Derry City. Pic by Eoin Noonan/ Sportsfile

Ruaidhri Higgins hailed Colm Whelan after the striker came off the bench to score his first goal for Derry City in tonight’s 3-1 win at Turner’s Cross.

The striker scored with only his second touch on his first appearance for the club to wrap up a very satisfying night for the Candystripes. It was Whelan’s first appearance in senior football of any kind since rupturing his ACL whilst playing for UCD last May.

“Collie Whelan is a special story,” Higgins said. “It has been 11 months of hell, a really difficult period in his life and in his career, but he was worked extremely hard over the last of months and got himself a brilliant goal. But the most impressive bit was the play in the lead up to the goal where he takes it on the half turn and slides Graydon through, carries on his run into the box and buries it.

“To be honest that’s why we’ve brought him here. We’ve had to be patient, but we know what we’re getting. We’re getting an exceptional goal scorer and an exceptional footballer. It doesn’t mean we go now and stick him in next week and that’s him ready to go. He’s played 20 months in the last 11 months so we have to be very careful with him.”

Michael Duffy also got off the mark for the season after his own injury problems, making it a near perfect night for the visitors.

“Michael’s goal is a brilliant team goal,” Higgins reflected. “Shane, back around to Brian, who switched it out to Ben Doherty, who slips it inside to Mickey, and Mickey does what he does, and that’s what we’ve missed for the first series of games and hopefully now we can keep him fit.”

To continue reading this article,
please subscribe and support local journalism!


Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.

Subscribe

To continue reading this article for FREE,
please kindly register and/or log in.


Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!

Register / Login

Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.

Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.