Mark Connolly: 'It would be an honour to be named Derry City captain'
Mark Connolly admits it would be an honour to be named Derry City’s captain for the 2025 season.
The 33-year-old, who joined the club from Dundee United back in 2022, is many fans’ favourite for the role, which is now vacant following the departure of Patrick McEleney to Ballymena United.
Manager Tiernan Lynch has yet to name his captain ahead of the new campaign, but Connolly, who has made 78 appearances for the Candystripes, admits he would love to be offered the armband.
“It would be an absolute honour to captain any football club, if you get that opportunity in your career,” he said. “I've had that before, so to get it now moving back home to Ireland and with a football club so unique as Derry City with all the history would be amazing. Listen, if (Tiernan) comes to me and asks me to do that I would absolutely love that but regardless my job since I've come to the football club has always been to try and help and lead as best as I can in whatever way and just help the players around me.
“If there's an armband on your arm or there's not, I'll still try and help and push things forward but if that conversation was to come with the manager that would be something that I would definitely look forward to. But again, my job now is just to make sure in pre-season to get as fit as I can and strong as I can and keep pushing the standards every day and keep trying to push this club as closer to winning leagues and getting back to the top of the league in Ireland.”
Connolly and his Derry City team mates have only just returned from a week-long pre-season training camp in Cork and will be on the road again soon when they head to face Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds on Tuesday night. It has been a busy period for the players with the new season fast approaching.
“We've been now roughly 2 or 3 weeks under the new regime of the manager and the staff and albeit it's been very tough and intense and difficult at times, it's been really, really enjoyable,” Connolly continued. “I think all the boys have really bought into the manager and the staff's new ideas and what way they want to do things. We obviously had a week down in Cork there which was really, really good, really, really beneficial. It's good when you're sort of away from it all and in amongst the boys sort of every single day.
“I think we were nearly having 4 sessions a day so it wasn't really much time to be resting and feet up. It was work for a week but it was really, really enjoyable, really tough but all the boys were brilliant and gave absolutely everything and it was really, really good. We're back now and ready to kick on again next week.”
New era
Connolly was brought to the club by Ruaidhri Higgins in 2022, but it is now a new era, with a new manager with new ideas leading the team.
“I think it's been fun,” the defender said. “Speaking with the players, everyone's really, really enjoying it and loving it so far. You obviously work with different managers and everyone's got different ideas and different approaches and stuff so it's just sort of getting used to it and getting to know the staff, the manager and how they want things to be and so far, myself personally, I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
“Like I said, it's been tough, it hasn't been easy but that's what you want, you want it to be challenging and you want it to push the players themselves but also the football club forward and I feel like that's what the manager's trying to do. He's coming in and he's trying to set standards and set a structure at the football club which would be brilliant for the club, not just short term but long term as well and I think you spoke about it but I know football as well; it doesn't just change overnight and you don't just click your fingers and everything falls into place.
“It takes time, it takes setting up structures, setting up the right things for the football club and I think at the moment, just from obviously the first few weeks from seeing the manager and speaking with him, he's doing that and he's doing it really well and he's just trying to build a culture at the football club of everyone coming in every day and working extremely hard and doing as well as we can for this football club which is all we can ask.”