IT'S FINALLY HERE! New Candystripe Adam O'Reilly returns to St. Patrick's Athletic on day one!

St. Patrick's Athletic vs. Derry City

Tonight, 7:45pm

Football is filled with subplots, and it was almost inevitable that Adam O’Reilly’s first game as a Derry City player would be against his old team, St. Patrick’s Athletic.

With Cameron Dummigan missing through injury, O’Reilly will almost certainly start at Inchicore, going right back into the deep end against his old team mates and friends.

The 21-year-old has already shown his quality and enthusiasm to Derry City supporters with a Man of the Match performance against Shamrock Rovers in last Friday’s President’s Cup win, and he is raring to go on a huge night for his new team in the 2023 league opener.

“I’ve nothing but good things to say about Pat’s,” he said. “I really, really enjoyed my time there. It’s just football at the end of the day and a lot of things happen in football. I wish them all well but once I get on the pitch, there’s no friends in football. That’s something I have stood by. They once were my team-mates, but once I get on the pitch, they’re my opponents. I’m just looking forward to it now.”

O’Reilly turned down a number of offers from other clubs to choose Derry City, a statement in itself about how attractive the club is to players, especially after the FAI Cup win in November. O’Reilly happened to be watching that game, and seeing over 20,000 fans there in red and white certainly helped him make up his mind.

“The support that I seen at the cup final was unbelievable. I’s a massive, massive support and even when you’re on the pitch and they are behind you, it’s almost like they’re a twelfth man. It does help a lot for the boys that are on the pitch so it’s good to have.

 “The quality of players that are here,” he added. “Obviously, you could see from last year how well Derry did, winning the cup final. That was one of the key things that stood out to me, that there was a lot of quality here and that can help me going forward as well. Obviously, it will be tough because of that quality because there are a lot of big names so I will hopefully feed off what they do and bring things that I see off them into my game and that is only going to make me a better player.

I spoke to the gaffer as well and he spoke to me about his plans and that got me really excited so I’m just happy to be here now.”

Challenge

Like any ambitious footballer, O’Reilly made his choice based on the likelihood of adding trophies to his collection in the coming years. Derry City are chasing their first league title in 26 years and O’Reilly wants to make that goal a reality in 2023. Manager Ruaidhri Higgins admitted he was impressed by his new midfielder’s desire to win, making both very similar in their goals as the club heads into the new season.

“Every team wants to go and win a title and go and win cups,” O’Reilly stated. “A big goal for me is to come here and try and help the team as best I can, to push for the league, to push for the cups. That’s what I’ll be willing to do. I’ll be enjoying the hard work and coming up against tough opponents and stuff like that, but as long as we all keep working hard, things will fall into place.”

Shamrock Rovers stand in the way of Derry City making history, with Stephen Bradley’s team going for four championships in a row. But other teams, including St. Patrick’s Athletic, will be keen to make their mark also.

“They’re going to be working hard behind the scenes, just like every other team in the league and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” O’Reilly acknowledged. “We just have to worry about ourselves at the minute and keep working hard and when it comes to the first game of the season that’s when everything starts, and I think everyone is looking forward to it. You can tell from training that everyone is buzzing about it, so we’re just really excited for it now.”

As last Friday night showed, O’Reilly can certainly bring a lot to this Derry City team in the coming seasons. The player himself just wants to do the best he can for his new team.

“The fans can expect a lot of energy from me,” he said. “People have noticed that about me, that I do like to get around the pitch a lot and break up the play. What I’d like to bring to myself this year is to contribute a lot more goals. Overall, I would like to say I’m a box to box midfielder and I hope I can contribute to the team.”