My best is yet to come at Derry City insists Will Patching

The 23-year-old, who signed his contract extension on Friday, agrees with boss Ruaidhrí Higgins that he has still room for improvement but believes working with someone like Patrick McEleney on a daily basis can only aid his game.

“I’m only 23, I’m still learning every day,” insisted Patching, “But it makes it easier when you train everyday with the likes of Patrick McEleney. He’s the kind of player you always learn from and even during games, he still finds space to help, not just me but the whole team.

“I still have a lot of learning and improving to do. I believe there’s still a lot more to come from me and hopefully I can continue to improve.”

Patching, who has 14 goals and 11 assists in just 35 appearances for the club, was delighted to extend his stay on Foyleside where he feels fully settled and enjoys his football.

“I’m still young at 23 and Derry has kind of been my first proper taste of playing men’s football so hopefully we can just keep playing well and I can keep improving to see where I end up,” he added, “I have enjoyed every minute since my first loan spell and hopefully that can continue.

“My form shows that when you’re happy and enjoying the place that you’re in, which is how I feel at the minute; I’m happy in the city and my form shows that.

“All the lads have made me very welcome since my first day here last year and I guess that reflects onto the pitch. You perform best when you feel like that so credit to everyone at the club for me to be feeling that way.”

The talented midfielder admits he and his team-mates will be tuning in later today to discover their European Conference League opponents but he stressed that once the draw is made, they will immediately turn their focus back to domestic matters.

Patching admits the mid-season break came at the right time for the Candy Stripes but said they’re now raring to go against Drogheda United on Friday.

“We have a big second half to the season coming up,” he explained. “We have the cup, Europe and the league so it’s going to be a busy schedule. That’s what you want, you want to play as many games as possible so, yeah, we’ll be looking forward to it. We’ll be looking to stay in every competition as long as we can.

“Playing in Europe for the first time with Derry, I’m really looking forward to it. All the lads are buzzing about Europe and we’ll be looking to do as well as we can. We’ll all be watching the draw on Tuesday.

“But as Ruaidhrí said, we have a few league games before Europe so we’ll be concentrating on those starting with Drogheda on Friday.

“I think the break came at the perfect time because obviously we weren’t doing so well. We’ve been able to put our feet up for a week or two now and we are raring to go again for the second half of the season.”