ARTHUR DUFFY was at Brandywell

Photograph: LORCAN DOHERTY

The Greencastle man, who had a particularly quiet 2007 season by his own high standards, has bounced back to prominence over recent months having emerged as the club’s top marksman with 10 league goals to his credit.

Indeed, it’s particularly interesting to note that Farren has now scored in each of the last four matches, a statistic which bodes well for Derry City as the club enters a crucial stage of the current campaign.

For workrate alone, the pacy front man can never be faulted but having found himself in the right place at the right time when Glentoran keeper, Elliott Morris spilled Niall McGinn’s thunderous strike in the 84th minute, suggests that Farren remains hungry for success and anxious to do well at the Brandywell.

In the end, the Derry victory was thoroughly deserved although the Brandywell Faithful will have noted that it took over 20 minutes for Stephen Kenny’s troops to get their act together, particularly on the passing front which has been the hallmark of recent performances.

And having struggled to get into their stride during the opening 15 minutes, Glentoran seemed to get a boost and the East Belfast men could so easily have netted twice during the opening 26 minutes.

However, when the home lot did settle, Derry went on to dominate the ball and the way the home players retained it, particularly in the second half, Glentoran had been constantly forced onto the back foot.

Now facing a hectic fixture list in four separate competitions, Kenny is anxious to do well in all fronts and while he openly appreciated the difficulties which lay ahead, the Dubliner agreed that his players would be asked to dig deep.

“We want to do well in every competition we’re involved in, but we still have a lot of hard work to do. As far as the Setanta Cup is concerned, we have St. Patrick’s away and Linfield at home and I think we will need to take four points from those two matches if we are to get out of the group,” he said.

“We face a heavy fixture list but that’s what we’re about. Now that the Setanta Cup is back in focus, it will be a tough one for us but we’re ready for challenge.”

Commenting on the Glentoran victory, he was delighted. “I’m thrilled with this win, I felt we produced some superb passages of play and while our final ball let us down at times, I can’t fault the effort put by the players. I felt we were the better team overall and deserved to win the match.”

Glentoran’s Alan McDonald had no complaints with the result. “The better team won on the night, I’ve no problems with that.