Barry McNamee's passing stats show why he is the heartbeat of Derry City

Barry McNamee is pivotal to Peter Hutton’s Derry City.

On Thursday night, the Donegal native was deployed at central midfield against Aberystwyth Town and it didn’t take the most analytical of eyes to realise just how important his tidy football is to the Candy Stripes as they continue to undergo a post-Collins-transformation.

McNamee is the heartbeat of the whole thing (Check out his stats above by clicking on View Gallery).

His ball-playing abilities free up McEleney to push into attack and his constant desire to drive the machine forwards towards goals keeps men like Fats and Rory Patterson occupied with enough ball that they’re not drifting deep, it keeps the opposition penned in and it invites the ever-improving like of Dean Jarvis and Aaron Barry to maraud forward from full back because McNamee is directing proceedings without just being safe in possession, but ambitious with his intentions.

The 22-year-old completed 41 passes in Thursday’s Europa League First Round Qualifier.  Most significantly?  Over half of them were played forward.  Only eight were directed backwards as McNamee tidied up around the middle of the field and guess, take a wild guess, who the Ramelton youngster picked out with most of his balls.

That’s right, Rory Patterson was McNamee’s preferred option with the ball at his feet as the midfielder refused to pass the buck or slow the play, he went straight for the jugular whenever he could, as often as he could.

Next to that?  He found Patrick McEleney just one pass shy than he did with the front man – McEleney who, incidentally, was City’s far and away most creative player on the night.

When Josh Tracey came into the fray for his 10 minutes of action, he was sickened with ball from McNamee who seemed to sense what was hot and made the retreating visitors pay.

For 76 minutes, the Candy Stripes had one of their most forward-thinking players sitting deep in the middle of the park directing traffic relentlessly in the direction of the Aberystwyth goals and whenever he was pushed forward into McEleney’s slot behind the striker, he wasted no time in finding the nets himself.

In total, despite playing deeper for most of the game, McNamee created six chances for his team mates, he set up Timlin for his goal and he kept Hutton’s new ball-playing style of play deliciously under his wrap with a series of neat touches and cutting passes.

McNamee has already eight assists to his name this season with three goals to boast as well.

Not half bad for a man who missed the first 10 or so games.