Derry City A-Z: Highs, lows and a painful 'what if?'

It has been a memorable year for Derry City supporters, and Christmas comes with the most painful question of all – ‘What if?’ hanging over all the Brandywell. Just three games from a double, to end up with nothing was cruel and painful. The arrival of a new manager brings new hope however, but for good or bad, the 2024 campaign will not be easily forgotten.

A- Away form. Derry City’s away form in 2024 undoubtedly cost them the league title. Usually strong on the road under Ruaidhri Higgins, City were a shadow of themselves away from the Brandywell, dropping 32 points. They won just five league games from 18, compared with nine last year.

B- Brandywell. The Brandywell surface was again the subject of much debate in 2024, with players suffering injuries on the artificial surface again and again. In the game against Sligo Rovers in October, City lost three players with season-ending injuries, Ciaran Coll, Ben Doherty and Pat Hoban.

C- Coll. Ciaran Coll’s time at Derry City came to an end as he joined Glentoran. Signed by Declan Devine in 2019, Coll went on to make 170 appearances for the Candystripes, scoring three goals and providing nine assists over a six-year period with the club.

D- Drogheda. Derry City suffered a first ever FAI Cup defeat to Drogheda United, and it just happened to be in the FAI Cup final. Derry went into the game in dismal form, while Drogheda were still fighting for their Premier Division lives. Only one team really wanted it on the day, and it was Kevin Doherty’s part-time players from Weavers Park.

E- Europe. There was to be no European adventure for Derry City fans in 2024. Last year City went through three rounds of Europe for the first time since 2006, but a first round failure this time round meant that the excitement and reward for all the hard work done to get there was fleeting and short-lived.

F- FCB Magpies. How will we ever forget? Derry City were embarrassed by the part-timers from Gibraltar in July, and it’s fair to say they never fully recovered from it. A 2-0 loss away from home was followed by a 2-1 win at the Brandywell, but the damage has been done and City suffered one of the most humiliating European results for any Irish side in history.

G- Goals. Or rather, the lack of them, cost Derry City everything in the final stages of the season. The Candystripes scored just 48 goals in 36 league games, and scored just six in their final eight league games.

H- Hoban. Pat Hoban ended his first year as a Derry City player as not only the top scorer at the club with 15 goals, but also the joint top scorer in Ireland. Seen by many as the final piece in the title jigsaw, Hoban certainly had the desired impact, but goals dried up for him and the team at a crucial stage of the season, and a late injury meant he wasn’t available for the run in.

I- Injuries, injuries, injuries. If one problem plagued Ruaidhri Higgins throughout his time as Derry City manager, it was definitely injuries. Again, big hitters missed whole chunks of the campaign; Patrick McEleney suffered another bad season of setbacks, Cameron Dummigan was rarely seen, while Pat Hoban, Daniel Kelly, Will Patching, Ben Doherty and Ciaran Coll all sat out different parts of the season.

The Candystripes were embarrassed by FCB Magpies in Europe. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile)

J- Jacob. Jacob Davenport was one of the summer signings that didn’t really work out for Ruaidhri Higgins. Making his debut in August against Dundalk, Davenport went on to make just one league start in 10 appearances overall. He ended up playing mostly at left full back due to injuries to others and never made the impact that was hoped for as a result.

K- Kelly. Daniel Kelly did not have the impact he hoped in his first and only season at Derry City. Brought in from Dundalk, he was viewed as a strong reinforcement on the wing, but he did not hit the ground running, and his season was forgettable. He made 30 appearances, just scoring one goal before his season ended prematurely due to injury in August.

L- Losses. Derry City lost nine league games through the season, most of them against teams they should have been beating. They lost home and away to Galway United, suffered their almost annual loss against Sligo Rovers, and lost to Drogheda United at a key moment of the season.

M- McEleney. Patrick McEleney left Derry City just days after the FAI Cup final defeat to Drogheda United. Having suffered yet another injury-plagued season, McEleney signed with Ballymena United as a part-time player, before reports appeared suggesting that he could yet be part of Tiernan Lynch’s backroom staff at the Brandywell.

N- Nil. Derry City failed to score in 10 league games from 36, and lost valuable points as a result. With 13 draws and 9 defeats in a 36-game campaign, Derry City didn’t do enough to win a league that was there for the taking.

Ruaidhri Higgins and Derry City parted ways after the FAI Cup final defeat to Drogheda United. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile)

0- Own Goals. Three own goals went Derry City’s way this season, each of them coming at a period of the season when the team was really struggling for goals. The Waterford goalkeeper dropped the ball into his own net in August, which gave City their only league win for a while. Other own goals against Drogheda and Sligo brought just one point as the goals dried up.

P- Patching. Will Patching is an enigma. Unplayable when he’s on form, Patching still holds the unique talismanic record for Derry City, who have never ever lost when he has scored a goal. He had 39 appearances this season and scored 7 goals, but he played with an injury at the mid-point of the season, He scored 6n goals up until the summer, and just one, a penalty at Dundalk, after that.

Q- Questions. Question marks hung over so much in the final weeks of the season, the biggest one of which was ‘Are the Derry City players aware of the significance of what they can achieve?’. Whether they were aware or not, it didn’t show in performances as they slumped to a painful and miserable end to the season.

R- Ruaidhri. Ruaidhri Higgins’ time at Derry City came to an end after three and a half years at the club. Higgins led Derry City to Europe on three different occasions, and two FAI Cup finals, memorably winning the trophy in 2022. He was in charge for a total of 163 games in all competitions, and won 80.

S- Shelbourne. Shels led the Premier Division for so long in 2024, but only because Derry City constantly fumbled when they had the title in their own hands. The ultimate pain then arrived in the final game of the season as Damien Duff’s team won at the Brandywell to clinch the league title and they celebrated what many believed should have been Derry’s championship.

T- Tiernan. Tiernan Lynch has come into Derry City hoping to recreate the success he had at Larne. He led his old club from the Championship to the Premier Division title and created history in Europe. An ambitious manager, he wanted a club which matched those ambitions and Derry City is that club.

U- Underdogs. Overcoming the odds to triumph is a part of sport, but there was no excuse for Derry City’s performance against underdogs, part-time, and relegation-threatened Drogheda United in the FAI Cup Final. ‘U’ is also for underwhelming.

V- Victories. Victories were few and far between this year. To win 14 just league games from 36 says one thing about the competitiveness of the league, and something else about Derry City’s inability to find consistency.

The club acted quickly to appoint Tiernan Lynch as the new manager for 2025. (Photo: Ben McShane/Sportsfile)

W- Wisdom. Andre Wisdom’s time at Derry City was short-lived, but memorable nonetheless. The former Liverpool man came in the summer and went straight into defence and there he stayed. But his lack of pace and being played at left back at times made it difficult for him to produce his best and for all his experience, he was unable to prevent the season slipping from Derry’s grasp.

X- Extra Time. Derry City went into extra time once in 2024, and it ended in heartbreak again. Trailing 2-0 from the first leg against FCB Magpies in the Europa Conference League Qualifier, City overcame a red card to Adam O’Reilly to lead 2-0 with goals from Danny Mullen and Mark Connolly. But an extra time goal from Evan De Haro sent the Magpies through and sent Derry out in embarrassment.

Y- Yellow. Derry City’s disciplinary record was pretty decent during 2024, picking up 78 yellow cards and just two red cards during 43 games in all competitions.

Z- Zero. Zero trophies at the end of a season which promised so much. It is quite hard to believe that the Candystripes were just three games from winning a league and cup double, but three defeats in the last three games ended all hopes. It is still hard to believe.