Ben Doherty believes Derry City's home form could be key to success this season

​The versatile 25 year-old has played two and won two for Ruaidhri Higgins' charges this term with victories over Shamrock Rovers in the President's Cup and Cork City in the league on Friday night ensuring a memorable homecoming for the Culmore man who joined on a three-year deal from Larne in the close season.

He's returned a much improved player with a physique and energy that makes him more than equipped for the rigours of Premier Division football.

While Doherty wasn't part of the Derry team last season which racked up an impressive tally of points on the road, he knows the message this season is to replicate that away form on Foyleside.

That could well make the difference in challenging Shamrock Rovers for the league title and it's very much the message emanating from the Derry City management team.

"The away form last year was superb," said the City left-back. "The players talk about that and Ruaidhri talks about it so we want the home form to match this year and see where it goes.

"Three points, back to the Brandywell on a Friday night, packed out, a 2-0 win and clean sheet - you couldn't ask for more and I think that was Ruaidhri's message before we went out tonight; 'The fans are going to bring the noise and excitement so we have to make sure we live up to that expectation and repay the supporters for putting their faith in us'.

"Hopefully they stick with us for the rest of the season and there's more nights like that to come. That was Ruaidhri's message was, to go out and light the place up and take three points on the first night back at the Brandywell.”

It didn’t exactly transpire like that as Derry were made to work for their opening against a well organised Cork defence.

“I think the goal was coming,” said Doherty. “We maybe played in front of them a bit too much but if they allow you to do that then ‘Fats’ and players like that will come up with that bit of magic.

“We want to make this a hard place to come. Last year our away form was a lot better than our home form and people have a lot to say about that but this year we want to make sure our home form is just as good.”

Cork made life difficult for Derry and Doherty expects more teams to come to Brandywell with a similar gameplan to frustrate their hosts.

“They're not the only team that will come here this season and do that to us. We've work on it all week Conor (Loughery) and ‘Rennie’ (Alan Reynolds) with their analysis and Boyler (Gerard Boyle) as well.

"We knew what we were getting tonight and were able to break it down more times than enough. So 2-0, three points and a clean sheet.

"We take nobody lightly and it needed a bit of magic from ‘Fats’. There's other players in the changing room who can produce that too but if you give him time to unlock the defence then he’ll do it.

"Luckily for us we went into the half-time with the lead and knew we had to up it in the second half again."

Doherty says confidence is high in the Derry dressing room and he’s excited to see how far they can go this season.

"The project that's happening here now you can see the buzz around the town. Long may it continue for the club and the city.

"It's creating a real buzz and the football club is now at the heart of the city again and I think everyone looks forward to the Friday nights back here and everyone enjoys playing in them as well.

"So it's good to get a taste of that now and we just need to kick on from that.

“There's a great changing room in there and we're excited to see where we can go.”

Heading to Tallaght on Friday night knowing a win would see Derry move five points clear of Rovers at this early juncture, Doherty insists the team aren’t prepared to settle for anything less.

“It's a good start to the season. Luckily we've had a taste of Rovers already this season in the President’s Cup albeit they probably didn't field their strongest side that night.

"They probably didn't want to show their hand for the start of the league. They drew against Drogheda and hopefully we can take advantage of that. We'll be going down there to take three points. We're going everywhere to win so that's the plan.”