WHAT DERRY CITY MEANS TO ME... There's no place like it on earth!
Caolan Ming
Derry City football club has played a massive part in making me the person I am today.
I was first introduced to the club when I was around the age of seven, spending Friday nights in the Brandywell with my da and from then on it’s just been red and white.
Years went on and like a lot of other people, I fell away from the Brandywell when I started my teens, being out on a Friday night with the mates while in the background hearing the sound of Scaldy whacking the drum from afar. That definitely didn’t last long when I realised what I was missing and that’s when I knew I had to get myself back at it.
Following Derry in my years growing up wasn’t easy; the club wasn’t doing much, and the attendances were dropping lower every week on average getting gates of 1500 if we were lucky.
A season that I will forget is the 2017 season; beating Bohs then Rovers away, watching the late Ryan McBride score the winning goal then to come back to Maginn Park to demolish Dundalk the league winners from the previous season and then seeing Ryan getting up for that header. He was up like a salmon and put it In the back of the net and at this point we all were on a massive high until that weekend set in when the massive high went to a major low, when our city lost its captain.
The Maginn Park days were over and the feeling of getting back into the Brandywell after nearly a year and a half out and being back in block J was indescribable. This was the draw back for a lot of Derry fans as the crowds were coming back and the atmospheres at every home game were going back to the way they used to be. Being in the middle of it all it just makes you feel like you’re a part of something big.
Covid then hit and to say that I was distraught was an understatement. Not being in the Brandywell just didn’t feel right. After 146 days I think it was, the LOI returned, and games were held behind closed doors. We repositioned from Block J to Celtic Court to watch the home games from over the wall. It wasn’t the same but it did the job, live football was back!
I’ve only ever been to one away European game, and it was last season’s fixture away to Riga. After 18 hours of buses, airports, and planes we finally arrived in Riga. 2-0 down, we weren’t expecting much but seeing the number of other Derry fans out there showed how special this club is and what it means to us all.
Anyone that was out there will know what a trip and atmosphere was had in the local Latvian bars. The pictures do it no justice and sure, what happens in Riga, stays in Riga.
When I ask myself What Derry City means to me I realise what a club we have. I was involved in an incident which left me not being able to get the matches for a number of weeks and the support I received from the manager Ruaidhri and the players and other Derry fans was unreal. It showed the club for what it really is, a team for me and you!
In world football, there’s nothing quite like being a Derry City fan. The Derry people are beyond lucky to have one of the best teams in Irish football at their doorstep!