Ruaidhri Higgins admits: 'I will make mistakes'

Ruaidhri Higgins has admitted that he will make mistakes as he attempts to improve Derry City on a week-to-week basis.

The City boss has taken the club from bottom to the top of the Premier Division in just over two years in charge at the Brandywell, this despite facing some significant obstacles on and off the pitch already in 2023.

The Candystripes lost the opportunity to go four points clear of Shamrock Rovers with a poor performance at Sligo last week, and no one was more disappointed than Higgins himself.

“I’m a young manager. I’m only two years in the game as a manager and I’m going to make mistakes,” he said. “I’m going to get team selections wrong, I’m going to get how we play wrong, but who doesn’t? It’s part of management. Not everything’s perfect.

“Every signing you make isn’t necessarily right, every player you let go isn’t always the right decision. Every team you pick, every formation, it’s not always right, but I do my best and I do what I think is right for the football club, and if it’s right, brilliant, and if it's wrong, you have to learn from it. I’m in the early stages of it and I’m learning on the job and that’s the way it is.”

The defeat at Sligo was the first away defeat of the season, a shock result for many given the contrasting form of both teams going into the game.

“I can understand the disappointment from the weekend,” Higgins said. “We’re not happy from it and we won’t accept it. Trust me, no-one hurts more than me and the players when we lose football matches. When you lose games it’s par for the course that you get criticised. We’re well used to it at this stage and we have to accept it. Last Saturday was not good enough and it won’t be acceptable going forward.

“We’re at the midway point, and we’re a point clear but we do accept that we need to perform better than we did last week and we’ll pick a team on Friday that will fight tooth and nail to get three points.

“We have reacted well to setbacks so far this season. There will be more setbacks but it’s just how you respond from them and it’s about how we respond now at the weekend.” 

The two best defences in the league come head-to-head tonight with Shelbourne hoping to take points from the Brandywell for the third successive visit.

“They took four from six at the Brandywell last year, but we don’t have a bad record against them overall,” Higgins continued.

“We have won three out of our last four and the three wins have been quite comprehensive. Our home form has improved but we know we will need to be at our very best and fight for each other to try and get the three points on the board, which is the main thing.

“They are difficult opposition, there; no doubt about it. They have the best defensive record in the league and they don’t give up much. They also have a wee bit of stardust at the top end.

“Calling them well-organised isn’t an insult, it’s a compliment. They do the two sides of the game well, so we will have to be relentless. We know it will be a hot, sticky and clammy night so we will need to be patient and try and dig in. It might not be beautiful but we need to do whatever it takes and we need everyone in the stadium rolling in the one direction to try and get us a big three points.

Whelan update

Meanwhile, Higgins has revealed that striker Colm Whelan will undergo surgery before a final decision is made on his progress.

“Collie is away in for exploratory surgery, which is what they call it. It’s new to me,” he explained. “Basically, the scan is inconclusive and we won’t know exactly the full extent to he comes out. They are going to go in and have a look and see what needs fixed and the fix it, and he won’t know and we won’t know until the operation is done what exactly what has been done and what the protocol will be after it. We honestly won’t know until afterwards what has been done or what is needed.”