Carl Winchester vows to give '110 percent to Derry City cause' after completing move from Shrewsbury Town
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The 31 year-old former Shrewsbury Town captain joined Tiernan Lynch's Brandywell revolution on a two-year contract, bringing to an end a professional career in the English Football League which spanned over 14 years!
He's made over 500 senior appearances since leaving Linfield to join Oldham Athletic in 2010 and bid a final farewell to the EFL and League One's Shrewsbury as a second half substitute in a 2-1 win over Wrexham at the Croud Meadow last Thursday.
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Hide AdCiting personal reasons for his decision to return closer to his native Belfast, Shrewsbury facilitated his transfer to Derry City and he's delighted to be plying his trade just 60 miles from his family home.
"The main factor behind coming home from England was missing my family," he explained as he was unveiled as Tiernan Lynch's sixth new signing since taking the reigns at the club.
"They were living in Belfast. I spoke with Shrewsbury who were brilliant with me. I told them I wanted to get back to Belfast with my family. They knew someone at Derry and said they would put my name to Derry City. As soon as the interest came from Derry City and I spoke with Tiernan and it was a no brainer really.
"I'm one of those players who will go out and give it my all for the team, for the club and everyone associated with it. I will give 100 percent.
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Hide Ad"That's me back settled. It was always going to come to an end and it flew by to be honest. I've had a lot of great memories over there but I just felt now was the time to come back and be with the family and come to Derry City and achieve good things."


Capped once for Northern Ireland, there's no doubting his pedigree but exactly what will Winchester offer Lynch's new Derry squad?
"If you want to understand Carl Winchester, he's had 500 games in the English Football League and he's been captain of every club he's been at," said the Derry boss. "Clubs the size of Sunderland so I think that sort of tells you everything you need to know." Winchester was sold on the move to Foyleside when he got chatting with Lynch and when he watched the likes of Liam Boyce, Shane Ferguson and Gavin Whyte arrive at the club, it rubber stamped his decision.
"It's unbelievable for everyone," he beamed. "It's just a good buzz to see these type of players coming into your club and it's great for everyone in the city and everyone involved with the club.
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Hide Ad"That was a big factor in me coming as well because I want to be successful and know those boys are good enough players to go and do that.


"I always try to be the best I can be every day. I will give 110 percent to the cause for whatever it is the manager wants, what the players need. I'm just there to give it my all.
"Obviously I've played a lot of games so if I can help the young players out on or off the pitch or whatever, and if they want to have a chat with me then I'm just here to help out."
He's had a fleeting interest in League of Ireland affairs over the years and he's hoping his time at Derry City will bring silverware and is confident his new boss can drive them in the right direction if the players buy into his vision for the club.
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Hide Ad“Tiernan at Larne was successful in what he's done so it's up to us now to buy into what brought him success and hopefully we can get that here. There's a lot of players here who have played at a good standard in England and back here and hopefully we but into what Tiernan wants to bring here and have a successful season.
“To be fair we got a lot of lads coming over to the English League from the League of Ireland and they're all really, really good players so I've always kept an eye on it.
"With Shamrock Rovers doing well in Europe I’ve watched a few of their games this season but anyone I've spoken to they've always said good things about the League of Ireland and said it was a really, really good standard. So I'm just looking forward to getting going.”
He got his first look around Derry’s new temporary training base in Owenbeg on Monday and he’s been impressed.
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Hide Ad"To be successful you need all the little one percentages away from the football pitch so you can go onto the pitch with no excuses. “It takes all those excuses out and you can get that level of professionalism and it stops you from making excuses.”
For Lynch, he’s delighted to bring in a player with the quality and experience of Winchester – a reflection of how ambitious the club is.
“We’ve been very very fortunate with the players we’ve been able to bring in and the experience will be invaluable to us.
“He’s had an unbelievable career. When I met with Carl, he was in a situation where he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He was captain of Shrewsbury in League One and we got the chance to tell him all about our vision for Derry City Football Club, where we want to go and what we want to do. We’re obviously very ambitious and he bought right into the plan.”
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