Mark Connolly relishing being back on the pitch after frustrating three month injury lay-off

​That injury, sustained in the first half of the scoreless draw against Dundalk at Brandywell on March 10th kept him out of action for three months and 13 league fixtures!

He returned against Shelbourne on Friday night and helped the team secure a ninth clean sheet of the season.

The Monaghan man admitted he was understandably feeling tired after lasting the entire match in the energy-sapping heat but he reckons he's now ready to 'crack on' and get a good run of games under his belt.

"Any time I have an injury it's never a small one," reflected Connolly. "It was a big one, a 'three-monther'. It was a high grade tear so difficult to deal with and hard watching from the side.

"Now I'm back thank God and I just need to make sure I get up to match fitness because nothing replicates it. You can run all day in training, run with the physio, do all your rehabs but nothing replicates playing games and I'm delighted I got through 90 minutes.

"My legs are a bit tired but I'm just ready to crack on, I feel good."

For a defender a clean sheet is always a bonus but Connolly, who struck the outside of the post with a close range effort from an acute angle in the first half, was disappointed not to make a winning return to the pitch. He also provided the pass for Michael Duffy’s first half lob which was cleared off the line.

"We probably didn't do enough to go on and win it and Brian (Maher) pulled off an unbelievable penalty save. Mickey (Duffy) had that one cleared off the line so it was probably a fair result which is really disappointing.

"I'm delighted to be back, it's been a long three months so to get through 90 minutes I'm absolutely delighted. I was tired coming near the end but it's just good getting it into the legs. It's just going to take a bit of time like Will (Patching), Patrick (McEleney) and even (Cameron) Dummigan who I thought was outstanding tonight. He's a few games back and you can see him getting to the level where he was last season."

During his absence Derry have kept five clean sheets and boast the second meanest defence in the league behind Shels and he's been impressed with how they've defended as a team.

"The boys have been outstanding. They've had a lot of clean sheets already. As defenders and Brian as the goalkeeper, that's what we have to do, keep clean sheets and hope we get goals in the forward areas.

"Listen, you could say 'job done' as a defender but we're still disappointed we didn't win the game. Hats off to Brian, it’s an outstanding save. He's an outstanding goalkeeper. He's been away with the Irish team recently and we're all delighted for him.

"So brilliant save from him and it gets you a point. If they score it's probably a different game. But we'll take a point, a clean sheet and move on."

And move on to St Pat’s at Inchicore on Monday night. Another difficult fixture as Derry attempt to arrest a two match winless run which has saw them slip to second.

"Since John (Daly) went in there and took over as manager they've been very, very good. It's never an easy game at St Pats.

"I know we've said it recently but there's not many easy games in this league. We have to make sure everyone is ready to go which I'm sure they will be.

"We need to keep rolling our sleeves up and we go to St Pat’s and hopefully get a result and then we have Bohs after that so we just need to keep going.”