Conor McDermott eyes Derry City return

Defender Conor McDermott admits he’ll be having talks with Derry City boss Declan Devine soon in a bid to sort out his future.
Cliftonville's Conor McDermott.Cliftonville's Conor McDermott.
Cliftonville's Conor McDermott.

The right-back currently on-loan at Cliftonville is enjoying his football at Solitude, but still thinks of himself as a Derry City player.

With one year remaining on his Candy Stripes contract, the 22--year-old feels his move to Paddy McLaughlin’s side has helped him.

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“The plan all along was to go out and get games, which I have done at Cliftonville,” he said.

“I’m really enjoying it at Cliftonville and Paddy has got us playing good stuff and we are solid at the back.

“I’m injury free and have felt very fit, probably the fittest I have been in a few years, so I’ll keep playing with Cliftonville up until Christmas and then come back to Derry in January for pre-season.

“But before all that I’m just concentrating on enjoying my football at Cliftonville and then going to chat with Decky (Devine) to see what his plans are for next year.

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“I have another year at Derry and that’s where I see myself, but at my age I need to play football so that’s why I have gone to Cliftonville.

“I’m really enjoying it at Cliftonville, Paddy and the players have been brilliant to work with and the fans have been fantastic, so we’ll have to wait and see what Derry’s plans are with me for next year.

“As I said I’ll have a chat with Derry in the next couple of weeks and then take it from there.”

The former Northern Ireland U21 international played his part in the Reds comfortable win at Institute, on Saturday.

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In fact McDermott’s sublime pass set-up Joe Gormley’s 198th goal for the club and capped off a fine display, at the Brandywell.

“We are taking each game as it comes and we said after the Linfield game, to make sure that we maintain our current form,” he added.

“We also said that we needed to keep it tight at the back, because we know going forward we have the players like Joe, Conor (McMenamin), Ryan (Curran) and Ruaidhri Donnelly who are capable of scoring goals against any side.

“So yeah we were delighted with the win and for me personally as a defender I was happy we kept another clean-sheet, because that’s what Paddy has brought to the team this season.

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“I know from looking at the results last season, Cliftonville were conceding a lot of goals, but this year we have kept a few clean-sheets and everyone is working hard to make sure we are solid at the back.”