Derry City's Ciaron Harkin plays his first game in nearly two years

Derry City midfielder Ciaron Harkin conceded he was nervous ahead of his first game in nearly two years.
The 28-year-old - suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) way back in March 2022 against Shamrock Rovers, before suffering the same injury for a second time in September 2022 - played 30 minutes in City's Under 20's 1-1 draw against Drogheda United U20's, at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, on Saturday.
The former Coleraine and Institute midfielder now just wants to continue to build up his match fitness in the coming weeks, before pushing his way back into Ruaidhrí Higgins' first team plans.
“I was a wee bit nervous, more sitting in the house before the game, just thinking about it and obviously thinking the worst, but once I got out there, I was grand, but as I said it has been that long, but everything just came naturally to me again,” he insisted.
“It’s part and parcel and it has to be done, but it was great to get back out onto the pitch again and get minutes.
“Hopefully I can kick-on now, I’ll be hoping to get more minutes even with the 20’s and just build my way up, but it was great getting out onto the Brandywell again and actually playing a game of football.
“It has been a long time and I’m just looking forward to getting involved on the big stage again.”
The Creggan man, who played a big part in Conall McGarrigle’s opening goal on Saturday, believes he still needs to brush up on some things but was happy with his overall performance.
“Hopefully I can tidy some things up over the next few weeks once I get on the pitch and get back to my best,” he added.
“I just tried to do the simple things and tried to make it as easy as possible for myself and not do anything mad, but I got through it; I have 30 minutes under my belt now and hopefully I can push on now with that.
“Ruaidhrí was there before kick-off and he told me to take it easy, but now I’ve played my first match it’s all about getting more minutes and then hopefully I can bring that into the first team.
“It will take time and that’s why I’m playing with the 20’s at the minute, to get that match fitness up again. Obviously, the speed of the game is a bit different in the 20’s.
“Look, getting that first match over me was that priority and now it’s all about getting the match fitness back up again, before getting into the speed of things with the first team.
Harkin insisted he hopes to be involved in another memorable Brandywell night after watching Daniel Mullen’s stoppage time winner against St Patrick’s Athletic, on Friday evening.
“It was a brilliant night, obviously you could say that we weren’t at our best and we could do better, but the main thing was getting the win, and we have the players there to do that,” he added.
“We scored two great goals and hopefully we can produce those types of nights in the Brandywell again this year.
“Coming into this season and obviously watching the game on Friday night, I just can’t wait to be involved in it again, playing with the boys again and being involved in night’s like that again.”