Brian Maher promises not to make any 'emotional decisions' about his Derry City future
BRIAN Maher insists he won't be making any 'emotional decisions' about his future as the goalkeeper plans to 'switch off from football' and mull over his options with his family.
The 24 year-old ex-Ireland U21 international No.1 is one of several high profile members of Ruaidhri Higgins' Derry City panel to find themselves out of contract after Sunday's FAI Cup defeat to Drogheda United at the Aviva Stadium.
And while there will be no knee-jerk reactions, the Raheny man claims there's been no direct negotiations with the Brandywell club or potential suitors over the last number of weeks as he opted to concentrate on Derry's league and cup challenge.
"There's no real negotiations at the minute," confirmed Maher. "Everyone can see how much I love it here and loved it here and relate with the fans and try to give back.
"I feel I've given everything over the last few years and that would've been a great way to finish this year with a trophy and be able to sit down and review. But there's nothing decided. I haven't spoken with anybody. None of that has gone on."
Maher has proven a major hit since arriving from Bray Wanderers ahead of the 2022 season but with his future on Foyleside very much in the air, has the club been pressing the issue of signing a new deal or has it been his choice to keep negotiations on the back burner?
"That's more from me," he answered. "We had a big four or five weeks and it wasn't the time to be sitting down with people. It absolutely wasn't the time to be speaking to other people.
"I was more comfortable trying to focus on giving it everything towards winning a trophy with this club because the fans deserve it, the club deserves it, the owner. There's so many players in there that deserve it."
There will be no shortage of interest in his services from rival League of Ireland clubs and potentially abroad but he won't be rushed into making his mind up.
"It's hard. I've not thought about it at all. I've said I would wait until the end of the season and I'll think about it. I know you're now asking the question because it's the end of the season but I'll be taking a few days with my family at least. "I haven't seen them in a long while so I will probably switch off from football and not make any emotional decisions which will be good." He couldn't hide his disappointment at the club's failure to win a second FAI Cup in three years last Sunday as he faced up to the media at the Aviva afterwards and claimed his overriding emotion was 'sadness' having wanted to end the year on a high.
"I'm just bitterly disappointed because we spoke about it [his future] obviously this time last year as well and I decided to stay. I wanted to win here and haven't been able to do it but there's no news. There's been nothing new in relation to that because we've been trying to win trophies.
"It was a hugely, hugely disappointing day. It's hard to put a finger on it. I think Drogheda deserve a hell of a lot of credit for the way they played, with and without the ball they were absolutely brilliant. They got it spot on.
"The hunger of them. Brilliant. We tried to get at them from early doors but couldn't. We got into some areas we wanted to get into and didn't capitalize on it and got done on a set piece. It's really hard to come back from 1-0 down against that team.
"I'm really disappointed for the whole group really. For players, families, fans and everybody who supported us all year. There's fans who travelled up and down the country all year and today should've been their big day out. Today should've been a chance for them to celebrate with us and we haven't seen it through.
"It's a horrible day. The overriding emotion is just sadness. Players with families and kids, you just wanted to have that day. For me with no kids and that you just wanted to see the lads who do to have that day with their families and their kids because some of the lads have put so much into it this year and have been let down. It's a really tough day."
Whether Maher remains as Derry City's No.1 man between the sticks next year remains to be seen but whatever the future holds for him, he's confident the Candy Stripes can fulfil its potential with an injection of new blood.
"It's not just to look at one game, one player, one person. There's things to be looked at and things that need to be reviewed, find out where you went wrong and don't let it happen again because there's serious potential at this club. "The following is incredible from day one. That's probably the reason I was so upset at full-time. I was looking around the Aviva and thinking we wanted to give that back to them and we weren't able to.
"With the right kind of work in the off-season you can [build it back up]. It needs to be looked at, the group that's here now. Maybe just new people and new faces and new motivations."