Derry City manager Ruaidhri Higgins happy Alan Reynolds return

Higgins was delighted to unveil Reynolds as his assistant, at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium this morning and conceded that his wealth of experience and knowledge of the game throughout Ireland will benefit the Candy Stripes.

“Alan is an outstanding coach, a really good person, someone who I have had a close enough relationship with since he was here way back in 2008 as Stephen’s (Kenny) number two and ever since then I have stayed in touch.

“I speak regularly with him and he’s obviously still with the Ireland U21’s, so he brings real experience, knowledge and great contacts as well and he’ll be a fantastic side-kick for me.

“To be honest, for the last week or so we have been talking three or four times a day. He knows both the Premier and First Division’s inside out. He has got a great contact base.

“He’ll be an absolutely fantastic addition to this football club and I’m really, really excited to be working with him.”

The Limavady man also feels that having managed Waterford for a number of years, Reynolds has been through all the ups and downs of managing your hometown club.

“The big thing for me was that he has stood in my shoes, he knows the emotions that a manager goes through,” he insisted.

“He has managed his hometown club. He’ll know all about the positives of doing that and the difficulties of managing your hometown club and he’ll be a great sounding board for me, but his knowledge of the game is second to none.

“I have seen that first hand many years ago and I feel he’s going to be even better now than when I first met him way back in 2008.”

The Derry manager, who also confirmed that he hopes to add at least another couple of players to his squad in the coming weeks, feels that Reynolds knows how much the club means to the people of Derry, having experienced it during his time as Stephen Kenny’s number two over a decade ago.

“In 2008 we had a decent season, I think we finished third, won the league cup and got beat on penalties in the FAI Cup Final, so he was here during an exciting year,” he added.

“There were good crowds that year, he loved his time here and I know he’s delighted to be back.

“I know the players will really enjoy working with him, he’s a big strong character but also very, very capable of having a laugh, which is really important, so as I said the players will love working with him.

“There’s going to be a couple more signings, obviously a few have left the club and a few have come in, but we need a squad that’s not too big, but big enough to compete on all fronts, so we aren’t done just yet, but the bulk of it is done.”