Derry City boss Ruaidhri Higgins says he plans to stay in his post and lead a rebuild of the club for next season after a dismal 2024 campaign which ended with the pain of an FAI Cup final defeat.
And he hopes his strong relationship with club owner and financial backer Philip O’Doherty can see Higgins retain his position for 2025 even though the lack of a trophy, and the failure to qualify for Europe next season, will lead to questions about the short-term future of the club with a financial hit from their absence from Europe.
Higgins was downcast when he met the media after the 2-0 loss to Drogheda, a stark contrast to the joy on his face in the same room two years earlier when he guided Derry to a cup final win over Shelbourne, but he says he plans to meet the challenge and be around, even though Derry will now struggle to retain out of contract players like Brian Maher, Will Patching, Colm Whelan and Adam O’Reilly.
“It’s very raw. I had eight and a half years as a player, three as a manager, so for 12-odd years I represented this club,” Higgins said when asked about his own future.
“I am proud to represent and manage the club, I am still in contract. When times are tough you have two options, you can roll over or come out fighting. I live in the city, when the going gets tough normally you come out fighting and I am sure that’s what we will do.
“There has to be a refresh and a reboot, there’s work to be done, that’s for sure over the off-season for the club to try and go forward.
“Ultimately I lead the team, four weeks ago we were in a brilliant position, collectively we just haven’t been able to get it done it when it matters and that hurts, there was real potential, real excitement, it feels like an anti-climax, a lot of soul searching to be done, it will be a long off-season, to be sure.
“The club means an awful lot to me, I get criticised for being emotionless at times. I am an extremely emotional person and when you don’t achieve it hurts and hurts bad, it affects your life and the people around you. Do I still have the drive and the hunger to keep going? When the dust settles, my intentions right now are to keep going, we have to try and look forward.”
Asked if he felt under pressure he said he was confident of his bond with the club’s owner. “I have a really good relationship with Philip. He has been a big supporter of mine, his support has been unwavering. It’s not about me, it’s about us as collective, we have not been good enough. The thing that really, really hurts badly is that a few weeks ago we had both trophies in our hands and we have come up short,” Higgins added.
“I haven’t had those conversations yet, that [failure to make Europe] wasn’t in the plan, obviously, and it’s not the time to talk about it, whatever it might be, it needs a refresh and a reboot and we will discuss that internally in the next week or two.
“I mean it when I say it, I back myself. I have worked extremely hard to be in this position, it’s been years and years of hard work. Football is my life, results can go for you or against you but I always remained confident in myself.
“The belief in what I do and that will never change. I am young, just turned 40, I gained a lot of experience in the last three and half years, a lot of learning this year and I am sure I will continue to keep developing and that’s what I love, it’s what I do and all I know.”
Higgins rued the fact that his side missed two first-half chances before Drogheda scored and were then caught out at a set piece.
“When you look at the two goals, the first one we should have defended it better, the second was a penalty that was marginal but we lacked in attacking areas, we lacked that bit of devilment, someone taking the bull by the horns and getting us over the line,” Higgins added.
“We lacked a cutting edge. At 0-0 we did have a couple of good opportunities that we should score from, [Sadou] Diallo has a great chance, Danny Mullen has a great chance and then we concede a terrible goal from a wide free kick, and it gives them control of the game, something to hold on to.
”We had plenty of possession, we just didn’t have a bit of spark about us. The last month has been extremely difficult, three/four weeks ago we had the opportunity to win two trophies and it has been very anticlimactic. It was a real terrible end to the season.”