Derry City's new straight-talking assistant boss Paul Hegarty gets straight down to business

​“Let’s call a spade a spade, if you don’t win the league people will be questioning ‘why haven’t you won it’ and to be fair the chairman has backed Ruaidhrí to the hilt. I’m sure he’s going to be asking the same question and he’ll have no bother saying it because that’s what you’re here for boys, win a league title,” said the Ballindrait man who has taken over from Paddy McLaughlin as Higgins' No.2.

It's a familiar role for the former Finn Harps and Institute manager having served as assistant on two separate occasions. Those two spells proved successful under Stephen Kenny from 2005 to 2006 when the Candy Stripes were on the brink of another 'treble' and went on a memorable European journey where they were eventually knocked out of the Uefa Cup qualifiers by PSG at the Parc des Princes.

He returned to the club as interim boss in 2015 and helped steer Derry clear of relegation before taking up the assistant role once again as part of Declan Devine's backroom team which won the FAI Cup in 2012.

As a player Hegarty was part of the famous 'treble' winning team in 1989 as a key member of Jim McLaughlin's record breaking side before he returned to the club to help Felix Healy bring the title back to Brandywell for a second time in 1997. As a midfielder Hegarty has made 303 appearances for Derry, scoring nine goals since making his debut against Finn Harps on August 23rd 1987.

So whether his arrival is a good omen for Ruaidhri Higgins' side remains to be seen but he was quickly down to work after his official appointment on Friday morning, travelling to watch Derry play a behind closed doors friendly against Dundalk at Oriel Park before making the trip to Tallaght Stadium to watch Shamrock Rovers win the President's Cup Final.

Hegarty was straight down to business on the training pitch on Sunday and didn't take long to make his presence felt alongside Higgins.

“I was in on Sunday morning, which was my first day in and while it may take a wee while to adjust and get in because you have to find how people are working, find out about people’s characters, whose toes you can step on and whose you can’t and stuff like that."

Hegarty was last involved in the game as assistant to Ollie Horgan in 2021 but he's been a familiar face at Brandywell and so already has a good understanding of what to expect from this group of players.

He's confident Higgins has assembled a squad capable of winning the title and can't wait to get back in the Brandywell dugout.

"That may be the case, but there have been a lot of good players there before and they weren’t a million miles away from it," said Hegarty when asked if the addition of Pat Hoban and Daniel Kelly may be the missing pieces of the title winning jigsaw.

“Sometimes things happen during the season and no matter how well you’re prepared it just doesn’t go right and that can happen, but we’ve a good enough squad of players and anyone of those players are well capable of going in and doing a job on any given day.”