Former Dundee winger Paul McMullan excited for new challenge with Derry City in Ireland

The 27 year-old, who began his career with Celtic, had no shortage of offers on the table having played a key role in Dundee's promotion to the Scottish Premiership last term, including opportunities to remain in Scotland but he chose to accept a long term deal with the Candy Stripes.

It's a decision the Stirling native has been mulling over for the past couple of months and his former Dundee United teammate, Derry City defender Mark Connolly has been influential in helping him opt for a fresh start in the League of Ireland and relocate to Foyleside this week.

"I fancied something different," he explained. "I've probably played the last eight or nine years of my career in the Championship bar one when we went up to the Premiership but I just fancied something different.

"I've been speaking to Mark for a couple of months about it back and forth and then it just kind of fell into place and now I'm here," he smiled.

"He's been great since we've moved over. Anything I thought, I'm not sure about that, I'd text him and within 20 minutes he'd have an answer for me and have two or three people waiting to help me.

"Honestly, myself and the missus couldn't thank him and Rosa enough for the help. We've only been here a week and already they've sorted us out with three or four different things. It's made the transition seamless and made it feel easier whereas when you move to another country you can sort of feel a bit stuck and not knowing what to do but they've been great and it has made it so much easier.

McMullan has a three month-old son, Patrick with his partner Keavagh and it was a significant decision to make the cross-Channel move but with family roots in Donegal and the prospect of a fresh start with a club competing in Europe and in the title race, the winger felt it was the right moment in his career to take a different route.

"It was a big decision in that aspect (moving his family). In football terms it probably wasn't that big of a decision because I was excited about what Derry offered and other bits and pieces. So it was just about having that conversation with my family. Do we go or do we not?

"In fairness to my missus she was keen to get over here and try something new. We always wanted to try something different and while the wee man's still young it's not really taking him out of school or whatever so we thought it was perfect timing now it's just up to me to make it worth it by producing the goods on the pitch."

McMullan, who can operate on either wing can feature from July 1st when the transfer window opens with the home clash against Sligo Rovers ring-fenced for his potential debut and Derry's Europa Conference League tie with HB Torshavn one to look forward to.

So it's an exciting time to arrive at the club and having been nominated for PFA Player of the Year, he's coming to Foyleside at the peak of his powers.

"To leave on a high having won the league and contributed a significant part was probably a good way to leave Dundee and now it's time to start a new chapter here and hopefully I can have similar success.

"To be honest I don't know a huge amount (about the league). I'm looking forward to learning as I go. The staff are great. I've sat in a couple of meetings for the games now and the detail is very specific so I don't think there will be any issues going forward. I feel like I've played against the same 10 left backs for the last nine years so I'm looking forward to seeing a couple of different faces and testing my skills against different people."

He got his first taste of League of Ireland football as he watched Friday's 2-0 win over Cork City at Brandywell and he’s excited to watch two of the league's top teams go head-to head at Tallaght on Monday night as he envisages how he can slot into Ruaidhri Higgins' team.

"A few of the lads were saying they've played a lot better than that and lost so I don't think anyone is going to be looking back at the end of the season and go we never played well against Cork and shouldn't really have won that game or we should've drawn or whatever. It's three points . You get on with it especially whenever you have three games so quickfire. You get on with it and now we're playing a big one on Monday and it's a game I'm looking forward to seeing.

"Although I'm not able to be involved in the games until July 1st I probably needed a couple of weeks just to get a bit of training and to be fair they've worked us hard. I'm sure I'll get worked hard again next week and get ready for Sligo at home which is the first game I can play and hopefully make an impact."

So what can Derry fans expect from him?

"I pride myself in being someone who is exciting to watch. Looking to get the ball and be positive with it and hopefully get people off their seats , get excited and hopefully contribute to setting up goals, scoring goals and contributing to winning."