Derry City's Oliver O'Neill thrilled for team-mate Colm Whelan

The Kilkenny native headed home his second goal in as many games against St Patrick’s Athletic on Friday night.

It only took Whelan four minutes to fire home his first goal for the club at Cork City; coming off the bench at Turner’s Cross the front man blasted home Derry’s third goal that night.

Both goals showed different attributes to the 22-year-old’s game and O’Neill, who played alongside Whelan for a number of years at Republic of Ireland U21 international level, feels he’s only getting started.

“Scoring two goals in two games is just silly,” he insisted.

“He’s just blessed with that knack of just being a goalscorer. I obviously knew Collie beforehand and I was telling people whenever he was injured, that he was a real serious player.

“To be fair to him I don’t think you could come back better from an ACL injury than what he has done over the past two games.”

The Fulham loanee himself produced his best performance in a Derry shirt, in the impressive 2-0 win over the Saints and he admits playing behind the striker is a position, which suits him well.

In fact, his manager Ruaidhrí Higgins felt his display against the Dubliners was his best of the season and he agrees with the Limavady man’s assessment.

“It probably suits me, getting that little bit of freedom and space to kind of move and penetrate in different directions and I felt good on Friday night,” he added.

“It was probably my most consistent 90 minutes of being a threat from start to finish. I also enjoyed the game and I probably expressed myself more tonight in terms of little turns, tricks and stuff and that probably represents me more and getting to my best and as I said I enjoyed it.

“I probably had that little adaptation period, which is obviously out of the way now and I feel kind of fitter and sharper and up to the tempo of the game, which is nice, so hopefully I can show more of what I’m about as I go on.”

The 20-year-old believes the win over Tim Clancy’s men is the perfect preparation going into tomorrow night’s big encounter against champions Shamrock Rovers, at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium (KO 7.15pm).

“It’s a massive game, but it’s one to enjoy,” he added. “We’ll be going into it off the back of the St Pat’s game full of confidence, we’ll also be looking forward to it and know that if we can go and replicate Friday night’s performance then it will put us in a good position.

“I think performance wise we’re getting better and I think tonight (Friday) was probably the best we’ve played in a while and it was nice to go out and put on that performance at the Brandywell.

“People talk about our home form and that but there’s no reason why we can’t go and play really well here and get results.”