Hoban hoping to make his 'Mark' for Derry City

Pat Hoban sat in the Mark Farren Stand on his first day as a Derry City player, well aware of his connection to the club’s greatest ever goal scorer.

Back in September 2012, Hoban was on the pitch when Farren scored an FAI Cup hat-trick to surpass Liam Coyle’s long-standing goal record, with his treble taking him to 113 goals for the Candystripes. Hoban was not just a bystander to Farren’s magnificence on the night, as he scored the Galway side’s consolation in a 7-1 defeat.

Since then, Hoban has become one of the league’s greatest ever strikers himself, with his 150 goals for Dundalk helping the Oriel Park side to trophy after trophy after trophy.

His career, so far, has been a glittering success, and he is far from finished yet. So, it was perhaps quite fitting that Hoban – Derry City’s new hope – spent some of his day in the Stand named after one of the club’s true heroes, where he answered questions about what he hopes to achieve in red and white.

“My target is to help the team as much as possible to try and win the league,” he explained. “There are a lot of clubs you have to try and take into account this year; they have all spent money, they have all built on themselves. Nothing will be given this year, but in terms of myself and scoring goals, I never put pressure on myself to score goals because if you keep doing the right things they will come.”

Hoban is a winner - and that stats back that up. The 32-year-old has done it all in recent years with Dundalk, winning three league titles, 2 FAI Cups, 2 EA Sports Cups, 2 President's Cups, 1 Unite the Union Championship Cup and featured in one of the Lilywhites' Europa League group stage campaigns.

In 296 appearances (253 starts) with the club, Hoban scored 150 goals and provided 56 assists. In fact, in the 2023 campaign, no player in the Premier Division contributed more goals and assists than Hoban.

In 117 games in which he scored for Dundalk, he won 86 times, drew only 16 and lost just 15. He has scored against 26 different opponents over the years and scored in 20 different venues. His goals are often vital to his team, and he has scored the first goal for Dundalk 75 times. He has not just come to Derry City to go through the motions. He wants to win.

“Dundalk haven’t won the league in four years, so the last time I won the league was in 2019, so I feel like I haven’t won the league in a long time,” he clarified. “There would be a lot of expectations on a lot of clubs’ shoulders this year. There’s a lot of investment in through the league as you can see yourself; even clubs like Waterford and St. Pat’s, they are all buying players. You can’t disrespect the league like that because there’s a lot of clubs in for it. We just have to look after ourselves and make sure we’re in the most capable position to try and take it out.”

Knowledge

Hoban knows exactly what it takes to get over the line in the chase for a league title, and is well aware that a team can suffer difficult moments during a season. Derry City have suffered from such moments in the past two seasons, and have been unable to recover as a result.

Former Derry City player Mark Farren. (Photo: Oliver McVeigh / SPORTSFILE)

“There are always hard moments,” he acknowledged. “There are hard moments individually as a player as well, if things aren’t going your way, but you have to remain calm and remain focused every day in training and bring it into matches and not get frustrated with yourself or as a team not to get frustrated either. Look, there’s a lot of things that you have to have when you’re trying to win the league and you need a bit of luck too and hopefully, we get that this year.

“Even from the outside looking in the last two years, you could always see that there are seriously talented players here, and you could see the style of football that they played. I could sit back and say that I would suit them because they do get a lot of balls into the box. There are a lot of talented boys here in this team and it’s going to be a squad effort if you’re going to try to win anything this year.”

Hoban has received a hero’s welcome at Derry City with fans beyond excited to see what he can do this season and beyond. The striker knows however, that what matters most is what happens on the pitch, with every result crucial over the next nine months.

“I feel like the whole place in general have been really welcoming, even people on the street,” he said. “It just reminds me a bit like Dundalk as well, everyone’s wearing Derry City football gear. It just reminds me that it’s a pure footballing town and that’s where I just came from as well. I’ve been really enjoying it so far, but the proof will be in the pudding now when the season starts.

“Every game counts in this league. You don’t want to be one of those teams looking back at the end of the season and thinking about ifs and buts. That’s the last thing you want to be at. Every game counts, and obviously, the Dundalk one, everyone is going to be looking at that because of what's happened there, but I’ll just treat it like any other game, and I’ll go and try to win a game of football.”