Derry City striker Jamie McGonigle returned from midseason break 'like a man possessed'

​And the Dungiven man reaped the rewards on Friday night as he ended a 13 match barren spell with his second goal of the campaign when he rose to guide home Brandon Kavanagh's cross in first half stoppage time.

McGonigle's last goal was the winning strike against Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght on March 3rd and so Higgins could understand the relief etched on his face as he celebrated a timely opening goal.

"He's come back like a man possessed after the break," said Higgins. "It's huge for him and you could see the outpouring of relief whenever he scored. He got into the team by how he trained this week. It's a brilliant header to be fair - a glancing header. He scored one very similar against Rovers when Mark Connolly crossed it for him in the cup game. I'm delighted for him.

"It's been a tough time for him. But I thought his all-round performance was good. He worked his socks off, dug in for the team, produced a good performance and got his goal. It's been frustrating."

McGonigle hopes the goal kickstarts his season and while he was obviously delighted to end that long dry spell in front of the posts.

"It's my longest dry spell," said McGonigle. "I had a bit of one last year and then kicked on and scored a few during the business end of the season and hopefully that's what I do now. The first half of the season is done. I'll put it on the back burner and focus on the second half of the season."

He agreed that the two week break came at the perfect time, offering him the chance to 'refocus'.

"The break was good for me just to get away from everything for a couple of days obviously to refocus and get back and work hard to get into the team. It's a fresh chance after the break to get back in the team and I think I did that through training this week. Thankfully it repaid me tonight.

"For me it's just about working hard and getting myself into good shape. Sometimes as a striker you need a biut of luck and a bit of a break. It'll be good for my confidence and hopefully now I can kick on until the end of the season."

Strikers are judged on their goalscoring record but McGonigle was more pleased with his all-round performance against Cork.

"Obviously people look at strikers and look at their goals and we want to be scoring goals but I think I'll take more confidence from my all round performance and being able to work hard and fight whenever the ball comes up and that's what I'll take most confidence from.

"All Ruaidhri asks from us as strikers is to work as hard as we can and don't make it easy for the opposition and hopefully quality shines through then and we can get a few goals.”

He’s got a decent record of scoring goals against Rovers and will hope that continues on Monday night.

"I have a good record (against Rovers) but I don't really think about that. Obviously my last goal was the one down there in Tallaght so hopefully I can replicate that again.

"We'll just be fully focussed on the game before we look at anything else. We’ll go down looking for the win and I think if we're at it I think we can do it.”