Derry City hinting striker Colm Whelan could make debut after international break

​The former UCD striker continues his rehab from a cruciate knee ligament injury, which he suffered last May at Finn Harps and Reynolds is excited to see Whelan’s Candystripes debut.

However the Republic of Ireland U21 number two is also cautious not to rush him back and also concedes that the likes of Cameron Dummigan, Cameron McJannet and Michael Duffy will also likely to be close to a return after this month’s international break.

"Collie Whelan is coming along and I suppose he's the forgotten man, but what a player he is and with an international break coming up soon, I wouldn't say he'll be to far away after that," insisted the City number two.

"That could the same for a few of the lads, but we'll have to be careful with him too, but it would be nice to have him back involved.

"We were speaking at the weekend about the boys missing for the Cork game, players like Adam (O'Reilly), Collie, Dummigan, Mickey Duffy and Cameron McJannet and they would play in most teams in the country.

"But to be honest the players that are playing now, means that those boys who are missing will have a job getting into the team.

"When you look at the job Ciaran Coll has done and so on. Jordan McEneff has kicked on after the FAI Cup final goal, so we're in a good place.

"Look I think we'll get better as the season goes on and that's my own take on things. We're going to get stronger and stronger and for the minute we just have to keep picking up results.

"We want to make sure that we peak at the right time. We learned I suppose a lot from last year, we had a smaller squad and then in May we hit a wall in certain aspects and we're trying to make sure that doesn't happen again.

"That's why we've signed better players and more players, so look I think in the next while we'll get better as we go along, but we have to win."