FAI Cup victory has whet the appetite for 'greedy' Derry City players says Ruaidhri Higgins

The Limavady man is by no means attempting to shield his players from those rising expectations and hopes the cup win gives them an insatiable hunger for further honours.

"You would hope it gives our players hunger for more," said the victorious City boss. "You want the players to be greedy. You want as much success as possible. You can't promise anything but we can promise we will do our very, very best."

For a club with such a rich tradition in the competition Derry City had been starved of success after a decade without lifting the famous trophy.

Patrick McEleney raised aloft the cup at the Aviva Stadium in front of 32,412 people as Derry clinched the FAI Cup for a sixth time in its history after a record-breaking 4-0 win over a shell-shocked Shelbourne and Higgins hopes that 'special' moment can inspire the players.

"Next year there will be more expectations and I will have to deal with that," he admitted. "The players will have to deal with that and so be it, it's great.

"Hopefully this can be a bit of a springboard for us. We can't take anything for granted. We have to chip away in the background and make everything better and improve standards around the place on and off the pitch and let's see what we can turn the place into."

Derry fans, who travelled in record numbers to the capital, celebrated in some style to make up for 10 years of hurt and plenty of ups and downs at the Brandywell club during that time. Now there is a real sense that something special is stirring on the banks of the Foyle under Higgins' watch.

It was the former Republic of Ireland Chief Scout's first piece of silverware as a manager in his first full season in charge of the Candy Stripes and he reckons Sunday's showpiece was a glimpse of the potential of Derry City Football Club having helped reconnect the team with the people of the city.

"Again the best thing for me to see as manager is the connection between the public in Derry and the club now. It's probably been missing for quite a while and today shows the real potential of this club. We have to kick on now we can't rest.

"There will be more expectations next year after this - that's life. That's how it works and I'm not naive to that.

"To be honest, to win the cup is special but to win it in the manner that we won it in is extra special. This club is a big club in Ireland and we hadn't won the FAI Cup in 10 years which is too long.

"God knows, we might not win another one for 10 years but hopefully not. You see the potential of the club today. The numbers we travelled in, I don't know what the numbers were but it was ridiculous. It's for them. Can we use it as a springboard? Time will tell but that's the ambition."