"We're in the market for good players, and he's a good player'

Ruaidhri Higgins is hoping to persuade Rory Gaffney to lead the Derry City attack in 2024 after admitting his team hasn’t scored enough goals this year.

While the City boss didn’t elaborate when asked the victory over St. Patrick’s Athletic, he did acknowledge Gaffney’s availability, saying only: “We’re in the market for good players and he’s a good player”.

Gaffney is out of contract at Shamrock Rovers, and although he has been offered a new deal by the champions, he is free to talk to other clubs with Rovers boss Stephen Bradley admitting that the striker has been offered deals by three or four other clubs in Ireland. In doing so, Bradley also expressed his frustration that the club allowed their star striker to reach this position where he can assess other options.

The availability of a championship winning striker would alert any ambitious club, and with no City striker scoring more than five goals this season, it is clear where an improvement is needed if the club is to challenge Rovers’ dominance next season.   

“I want to bring players to the club who can score goals,” Higgins said. “We’ve come up short in that department. If you look at the ‘Goals For’ it will be up there with one of the highest, but there have been too many games we haven’t scored in this year and whether it’s wide players or centre-forwards, or midfielders, we need to score more goals, that’s the bottom line and when we’re looking at what we’re doing next, that has to be a priority.

“If you look at clubs who are successful right around Europe, they have six or seven players who can get in or around double figures and that’s what we need.”

While Derry City certainty struggling in attack, they had no such problems in defence, with the 24 goals conceded the lowest in the country. Goalkeeper Brian Maher also earned the ‘Golden Glove’ due to his 18 clean sheets in 36 games.

“We have 24 clean sheets in all competitions which is absolutely amazing and probably not enough gets said about that,” Higgins said. “We’ve been absolutely outstanding. We conceded four at St. Pat’s. but that was a real one off over the last couple of years. By the way, that’s not just Brian and the back four that’s from the front backwards in how we press and how we protect our own goal.

“There’s a lot of stuff I’m extremely happy with; how we defend, how we control matches, we create opportunities, but we just haven’t been ruthless enough in certain games.”

Reflection

When reflecting on the season, Higgins insisted that while there was plenty to learn from, there were also some positives.

“There have been parts of the season which have been really, really good and it’s important not to forget that,” he said. “There have been some really good displays, particularly from the summer onwards and if we can continue that and add one or two in key areas, along with the group we have then I’m confident that we can go on and do something a bit better.

“Last year we finished second, won the cup and did one round in Europe. This year we’ve come second, did three rounds in Europe and got knocked out of the cup and that was on penalties. That will be based on opinions, but what I am happy with is the balance of the squad. It’s probably the happiest I’ve been with balance of the squad.”

Keeping key players fit will be another priority for Higgins, with some big names in the squad having very little playing time over the course of the season.

“(Cameron) Dummigan has played less than half, Mark (Connolly) has played less than half, Patrick (McEleney) has played less than half and (Michel) Duffy has been carrying an injury since the summer onwards,” Higgins acknowledged. “He isn’t moving as freely as he would like so he has to go and do his work in the offseason to get that right. There’s a lot to be optimistic about if we get a good pre-season into those lads.”

Personnel aside, the City boss knows where his team have slipped up in 2023.

“We have taken four points from 12 from Sligo, which isn’t good enough, we’ve taken six points from 2 from Drogheda, which isn’t good enough, and the head to heads with Shamrock Rovers, they’ve edged it, which has been a big swing,” he said. “They are the types of things we need to improve on, and if ever there was a learning curve going forward, that’s it for me. We should be taking minimum right or nine points from the majority of clubs, and we know if we can do that we will have a real push.”