'Ruaidhri has come through so much'

Mark Connolly has paid tribute to Ruaidhri Higgins for leading Derry City to the top of the Premier Division amidst incredible turmoil on and off the pitch this season.

In only his second full season as a senior manager, Higgins has taken the Candystripes into first place, this despite the tragedy of losing his brother Kevin, back in February.

On the pitch, Higgins has also had to deal with the loss of his assistant Alan Reynolds to Waterford, while navigating through a hectic fixture list without the long-term services of some of his best players, including Michael Duffy (9 games), Patrick McEleney (9 games), Mark Connolly (13 games), Cameron Dummigan (15 games), Adam O’Reilly (6 games), Colm Whelan (16 games) and Cameron McJannet (7 games).

Despite all this, City lead champions Shamrock Rovers by one point with 18 league games gone, which marks the exact hallway point of the league season.

“We’re all fully aware of what’s happened with Ruaidhri, with his family and everything, and to be honest it’s been a very difficult time for them all. To be fair to him, I think he’s done outstandingly well to come in and keep going the way he has done,” Connolly explained.

“When you lose someone so close, it’s not easy and sometimes people maybe forget about that. All they see is football and winning football matches. They don’t see everything that goes on behind the scenes, but myself and Patrick McEleney and Shane McEleney and the older players; I think the manager knows that if he ever needs anything or if he ever needs help around the training ground or the stadium on match days, we’re there and we’ll always be there for him.”

Higgins is approaching 100 games as Derry City manager, during which time he has taken the club from bottom of the Premier Division to qualifying for Europe in his first season, winning the FAI Cup and finishing second in his first full season, onto this campaign where he has faced difficulties that few other managers have ever dealt with.

“To be honest, he’s a very strong man the manager, the way he has dealt with the past three or four months has been incredible,” Connolly continued. “He’s a credit to the football club and his family. It’s not been easy, but he’s rolled his sleeves up and put all his problems behind him and tried to focus on the players and the football club, and I think that just says a lot about the man himself.

“He’s put a lot of things in front of him when he probably could have taken a wee step back from it all. When you lose anyone in your family, it’s really, really hard, but he has put the football club and us as players ahead of everything because he wants us all to be successful.

“We do certainly owe him one back and I know for a fact that the boys will be giving absolutely everything to make sure we get as many points as we can, and put in a performance for himself and for the fans, especially after last Saturday.” 

Connolly return

After sitting through last week’s defeat at Sligo Rovers as an unused substitute, Connolly could make his return to action tomorrow night against Damien Duff’s Shelbourne.

Injured against Dundalk on March 10, the defender has missed 13 games since so is understandably eager to get back onto the pitch.

“It has been a tough few months, just trying to get back and sitting watching it from the side and cheering the boys on,” he said. “Obviously when the results are good it’s fine, but sometimes you just want to be back out there and playing football and doing what you enjoy.

“It’s been a long time. I kind of knew at the time when I went down it was never going to be a quick one. It’s been roughly 11-12 weeks out so I’m just delighted to be back amongst the boys now to be honest.”