Patrick McEleney and Michael Duffy return to Derry City

The pair, who have both signed long term deals with their home town club, were unveiled as Derry players at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium this afternoon.

Duffy has signed a four year deal with the Candy Stripes and McEleney a two year contract and both lads are the type of players boss Ruaidhri Higgins wants to bring to strengthen his squad ahead of the 2022 campaign.

The Limavady man also confirmed that he doesn't expect to make wholesale signs this winter and is only looking for quality players to strengthen his panel.

Higgins says the club won’t be making a host of marquee additions but admits they will be strengthening their squad ahead of next season, with Republic of Ireland U21 goalkeeper Brian Maher also expected to be joining in the coming days.

Since his appointment back in April, Higgins has guided Derry to impressive 52 points from 30 games in charge. In fact, City finished second behind champions Shamrock Rovers in the form guide for those 30 games but Higgins still feels they need to add a few new faces.

“It has been a really good points return but the players are the ones that cross the white line. After the start we had and because we have a lot of young lads in the squad, they could have easily folded but their character has never been in question,” confirmed the Derry boss, “I think we have deserved to get into this position for our strength of character alone.

“We won’t be making all these marquee signings. Patrick McEleney and Michael Duffy are both from Derry and live five minutes from the Brandywell so we should be trying to sign these players.

“Derry City isn’t a small football club, it’s a big club, we should be trying to bring those types of players to the club.

“But there won’t be wholesale changes. We might sign one or two young players who we can develop as well.

"Listen, good players, of course they help but we have to respect what the players in the dressing room at the minute have done and if we can integrate some bits of quality along with the quality group that we already have then we’ll be a really good team.”