Derry City boss Declan Devine relatively happy with opening set of 2021 fixtures

City boss Declan Devine is relatively pleased with the opening set of fixtures, which sees his side play four times at home in the opening six matches.

“I think everyone will rightfully be gearing towards the first game at Longford,” he stated.

“I watched how they went about their business and Daire Doyle (Longford Town manager) has done a brilliant job down there. He signed Aaron Bolger this week from Cardiff City on-loan and he’s a fantastic young player.

“I was really impressed with them in the playoff game against Shelbourne. I thought they were quite comfortable in that game and they’ll certainly be coming up looking to make an impression and fancying their chances. We have to go down there and make sure we turn up and do everything we can to win the game.

“However, going through the fixtures, financially it’s probably not the best thing for us but we have got four home fixtures out of the opening six games, so you have to try and use that to your advantage.

“To get Shamrock Rovers at any stage is always going to be difficult and to have them for your first home game is going to be tough.

“You always want to start at home well and make your home venue a fortress, so we are certainly going to be up against it, but at the same time it’s something you have to embrace and it’s a good test for us to work towards.

”No matter who you are playing, you have to try and make sure that you are picking up points at home, so to have four out of six at home at the start of the season is probably the best we could have hoped for no matter who we are playing.”

The Candy Stripes boss was pleased that the 2021 fixtures have been released as it means he and his squad can prepare for that opening fixture at Bishopsgate next month.

Devine also confirmed that he wants to add players who know what it’s all about to wear that City jersey, with defender Danny Lupano expected to return to the club later this week.

“We now have six weeks to get ourselves really ready and it’s great that we have the fixtures out. First and foremost we have got to strengthen the squad and make sure that we are ready to be competitive from the first game of the season,” he added.

“I had a zoom meeting with all the other League of Ireland managers at the weekend and they are very determined that the weekend of March 19th is when the league is starting, so now it’s all about getting the players in this week to start pre-season and it gives us that focus.

“One thing I want to do this year is make sure everybody that I bring to the club knows how the football club works and knows what the expectations are for the football club. If there’s a possibility of bringing Danny Lupano to the club, then he certainly knows the way we work and the way we want to go about things.”