Derry City at Owenbeg - A new home away from home

Derry City players have wasted no time in getting their feet under the table at Owenbeg’s Centre of Excellence, as the club takes full advantage of the state-of-the-art facilities now at their disposal.

With the new league season just days away, the hard work is well under well at the superb facilities in Dungiven, just a 20-minute drive from the city centre. From the weights room, to the meeting rooms, from the canteen to the changing rooms, from the main pitch to the training pitches surrounding the grounds, the players and the staff have everything they could possibly ask for.

Having one solid base for training has already made such a difference to the players. For years, Derry City managers have had to deal with the frustrating logistics of finding an available base to train on from one day to the next, but those days are now down, thanks to the club’s agreement with the Derry GAA County board.

Now, with a visit to league champions Shelbourne on the horizon, the players are able to focus onto getting into the best shape possible for another demanding campaign.

“Moving out here and having a training base at Owenbeg has made a massive difference,” defender Mark Connolly stated.

“Hopefully this can push us on now, not just for this season, but for the football club for the next number of years so the club can push forward.”

From Lisnagelvin, to Clooney Park West, to the Brandywell to the Waterside Share Village, the players travelled here, there and everywhere just to find somewhere to train on a daily basis. Thankfully that’s no longer the case.

“It was difficult,” Connolly agreed. “I think Ruaidhri tried to get something in place last year as well and I think it was very, very difficult at times to manager where we were going to be. Unfortunately, we didn’t have Owenbeg in place which we do have this year.

Derry City’s Mark Connolly shares a joke with his team mates in the Owenbeg canteen. (Photos: Stephen McCarthy/ Sportsfile)

"I think in time the club is pushing to have a state-of-the-art training facility that will benefit the whole city, especially younger players coming through. It will be massive for them and I think that once the club have that then everything will settle down a bit.

“Last year it was a struggle; you’re training in one place then going to another for the gym and then back again to another place. People might think just get on with it, but it does have an effect.

"It’s a long season and when you see every team pretty much have their own base and their own training facility in one spot, it’s difficult to compete against that. But now, there are no excuses now, we have Owenbeg here which is a top class facility, and it’s a base now where everyone knows we’re going to be here every day so that’s a huge positive.”

‘Far better’

Fellow defender Ronan Boyce agreed that the difference that Owenbeg has made to the players is significant.

“Training has obviously been very good with the new facilities,” he said. “It’s far better because for the past couple of years, we have been running about everywhere through Derry. But now, even though it’s a bit far out, it’s far better and at lest you know you’re here for the full day and you can have your meetings here and you can do your gym work here.

New signing Liam Boyce settling into life with his new team mates.

"It’s definitely far better and I think that it will improve us as a squad and as a group collectively.”

For manager Tiernan Lynch, having this solid foundation is akin to building a new home, with the base of that home the standard for everything else that is to follow.

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“This group of players and this football club, I know the work that's been in for a number of years to try and get our own facility, and you wish you were coming in today to your own training facility, but I've no doubt we'll get there. But accountability is a massive word that we use in camp, and we have to take away any excuses, we have to take away any thoughts that we're not here for one reason and one reason only, and that's to get to the very top. We want to provide the resource and the facilities to give them every opportunity to get there.”