Former Derry favourite Patching back to enjoying his football

Coleraine manager Ruaidhrí Higgins feels former Derry City fans favourite Will Patching is back enjoying his football.

Higgins believes the 26-year-old, who has scored a few stunning free-kicks during pre-season, was his most productive player during his tenure at the Brandywell.

“I think bar the end of last season, where it wasn’t easy for anybody, it was tough for himself as well, but if you look over my three and a half years at Derry from an attacking sense he was probably my most productive player, there’s no doubt about that,” stated Higgins.

“He scored a lot of goals, he created a lot of goals and he’s an immense talent when he’s happy and seems to be really happy at the minute.

“It's a new environment and we’ll give him the freedom to go and express himself and I’m sure he can do brilliant things for us.”

The 40-year-old believes he’s a new man since leaving the Derry hot-seat and has brought Conor Loughrey, Gerard Boyle and Michael Dougherty with him, while former Derry team-mate Kevin Deery has also joined the back-room team.

The Limavady native, who decided to leave the Candystripes at the end of the 2024 season, is looking forward to the new challenge with the Bannsiders.

“I’ve learned a lot and so much to be honest and I feel a new man coming into this and I’m so excited to be honest. I think there’s much potential at this club,” he explained.

“We’ve a huge fan base, we’ve ambitious owner and we’ve got a good group of players and staff and if we can get the Showgrounds rocking then the sky's the limit.

“Deerso’s brilliant and he's a really, really infectious character, enthusiastic and has an unbelievable drive to win, but in terms of how we see the game we’re aligned, which is massive.

“People shouldn’t underestimate the job that he did at Institute on very limited resources, he had two playoffs, a comfortable mid-table finish after losing all his best players, so his coaching pedigree is excellent and I think we’ve a brilliant balance in our staff.”

Ruaidhri Higgins and Will Patching have reunited at Coleraine. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile)

The Showgrounds men have an ambitious young chairman Henry Ross, who has invested heavily in the new look squad adding the likes of Joel Cooper, Stephen Fallon, Levi Ives, Ryan Schofield, Charles Dunne and Patching, but Higgins knows it’s going to be tough to topple champions Linfield.

“The expectation is here of course and we want to be competing at the right end of the table,” he stated.

“We obviously finished 30 odd points behind Linfield last season, which is far too much and we need to make sure that we close that margin drastically.

“We also want to compete and if you look at the opening four or five fixtures, it's a really, really tough start, but we have to embrace it and relish it and I’m sure we’ll be ready to rock when it comes.”

Cooper’s arrival from the Blues was a statement signing and Higgins is delighted to have last season’s Player of the Year in his dressing room.

“Joel Cooper, is a bit different, he’s a match winner and he’s got balls of steel and he works extremely hard,” admitted Higgins.

“People say that Joel Cooper is this and that, he scores and creates goals, but I’ll tell you out of possession he does a brilliant job for the team as well and he seems to be buying into things. If we can get him into the right areas of the pitch and get him the ball as quickly as possible then obviously we know that he can do real damage and we look forward to seeing it.

“It’s very, very difficult to become challengers overnight. You can’t go from 30 points behind the top to challengers overnight, but in saying that you can’t rule anything out either.”

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Coleraine take on Larne at the Showgrounds on Sunday and Higgins feels it’s a great game to kick-start the campaign.

“It’s a brilliant fixture to open the season and it’s one to wet the appetite, pre-season has gone really well, the players and staff have been brilliant,” he added.

“There was a lot of hard work over the last number of weeks during pre-season and I think we’re building an exciting group of players and hopefully there’s a big year coming.”