'NOTHING WILL STOP ME!' Ruaidhri Higgins reaches 100 games in charge of Derry City

Shelbourne vs. Derry City

Tolka Park

Tonight, 7:45pm

Ruaidhri Higgins has vowed that nothing will stop him in his quest to turn Derry City into a title-winning team as he celebrates 100 games in charge at Shelbourne tonight.

This season has been extremely trying for the Derry City manager due to events on and off the pitch, with prolonged injuries to several key players hampering City’s title hopes as they struggle to keep in touch with Shamrock Rovers at the top of the Premier Division.

The manager has also lost his number two in Alan Reynolds, who returned to Waterford, forcing a reshuffle in his backroom team also, with Paddy McLaughlin stepping in after leaving Cliftonville.

A sixth defeat of the season at Shamrock Rovers on Monday night has left the Candystripes with a mountain to climb in their race for a first league championship in 26 years with a seven-point gap now separating Derry and Rovers, but Higgins remains unbowed despite a poor run of just one win in the last six games.

“Obviously, people are extremely disappointed that we didn’t get anything out of the game,” he acknowledged. “You can never be upbeat after a defeat because that’s not how the mind works, but there are areas we can be encouraged by so it’s not all doom and gloom. We just need to be a bit more cut-throat when we get into good areas of the pitch.”

A return of just three goals in the last six games has really dented City’s ambitions, and the manager knows full well that an improvement is needed in the final third.

“A lot of people who create and score goals have been unavailable to us and have been for a large chunk of the season, which doesn’t help,” he continued. “But we do have players on the pitch capable of creating and scoring goals. There’s no point in having really good play up until a point because that’s where you need the most composure, that last pass or that last cross, and then when we do get chances we need to be ruthless. It does need to improve.

“I know how football works; you have to score goals to win games. We got a couple against Cork and in the last two home victories at home to Dundalk and UCD. We’re just not scoring goals consistently enough and that needs to improve.”

City have won 1-0 on each of their last three visits to Tolka Park and Higgins would gladly take that if offered again.

“We’ll take it again, but we have to go down there and treat it like it’s the biggest game of the season because that’s what it is,” he said. “We have to go and win and we have to do everything in our power to win. We can take confidence from parts of our game the other night, but the other parts we need to tidy up on; we need to be more ruthless and clinical and have that arrogance at the top end to go and produce a big, big win.”

Century

Reaching 100 games in charge is a significant milestone for Higgins, and while he doesn’t place great importance on that statistic, it does give him the opportunity to reflect on how far he has come in just over two years.

“I would say the first season when we took the team from bottom of the league to finishing in Europe probably accelerated the whole process to be honest,” he said. “It went better than expected then last year, winning the cup and finishing second. Obviously, we’re in a difficult moment but if you look at it over the 100 games, we’re delighted with the progress. Other than that, 100 games is pretty irrelevant to me, but if we win, I’ll enjoy it.”

Higgins is well aware of the pressure facing his team at present, with plenty of criticism coming online after a poor run of results. But he is determined that he, his staff and his players can turn things around.

“It hasn’t been a straightforward year, far from it,” he admitted. “It has been strange and it has been difficult, there’s no two ways about it. We have to accept that criticism is part of it, particularly in the modern day when everyone has a platform. It’s part and parcel of it.

“It’s win at all costs, there’s pressure to win every game and that comes with the success that we’ve had over the last year and rightly so.

“Trust me, no-one is working harder than the staff and the players to try and make this club a success, and I’m very, very confident that there are good times ahead for the club.”

The strain of a season such as this would take its toll on any manager, and while admitting it has been difficult, Higgins has not lost any belief whatsoever in his ability to make Derry City a winning team. 

“It’s human nature to feel sorry for yourself at times,” he said. “You question your luck a wee bit at times, but that’s life. No-one ever said going into football management is easy. I don’t know a manager ever that has had a bed of roses.

“There have been tough times, there’s brilliant times, and that’s what makes it special; when you go through the tough times and things end up going really well, then you can really enjoy it because you know you have come through that wee bit of adversity.

I’m very, very confident that there are good times ahead for the club, whether that’s over the next few weeks or the next few years and nothing will stop me from working through these moments to go and try and achieve that because there’s a really good group of players here and a really good club behind it.”

Michael Duffy, Patrick McEleney, Will Patching are all nearing a return, while Ryan Graydon will face a late fitness test for tonight's game against Shelbourne after picking up an injury at Shamrock Rovers.