Ruaidhri Higgins hails Derry City's 'majestic' matchwinner Will Patching

The former Manchester City Academy playmaker was in scintillating form and capped a wonderful display with two moments of individual brilliance in either half as City knocked the Saints off their perch.

Patching curled into the bottom corner of the net after just four minutes to give City the lead and his dramatic 93rd minute strike 'raised the roof' at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.

Afterwards Higgins described Patching as an 'outstanding footballer' and a signing he was determined to bring back to Brandywell from Dundalk following his impressive loan spell last year.

"He's an outstanding technician," said Higgins. "A really brilliant technician. He's got so many attributes. You see how he moves as well. Two great feet, just graceful and an outstanding footballer.

"We worked really hard to be honest to try and keep him in the summer and it didn't happen. We then worked hard again to bring him here but it didn't take that much persuasion because of how much he enjoyed his loan spell here. We're delighted to have him and long may that continue, midfield players chipping in with goals is crucial.

"He's majestic, he's graceful and I love watching him," continued the City boss. "Even standing on the sideline I love seeing him on the ball, he makes things happen, he's brave. To be honest when I saw him lining that one up in injury time I fancied him because when you give him time and space in and around the box he hurts you."

It was another notable scalp taken by Higgins' unbeaten troops after an equally dramatic stoppage time victory over champions Shamrock Rovers at home last month.

Certainly it was a statement victory bearing in mind the players who were unavailable through injury including Michael Duffy, Patrick McEleney, Ciaron Harkin and Matty Smith.

After six games in the 2021 season Derry were bottom of the table without a win and 12 months later after the same amount of fixtures the Candy Stripes are looking down from top spot boasting an unbeaten record.

It's been a sensational transformation of fortunes under Higgins but while he's enjoying the moment, he's taking nothing for granted at such an early stage of the campaign.

"I'm delighted. If you want to be serious about doing anything you have to take big scalps and so far we've done that.

"However, loads of teams have had brilliant starts in leagues all over the world and then faded away. We just need to stay focused on the next game and pick up three points. I'll keep giving boring answers but if you do look too far ahead you get done. So you just want to keep that momentum and keep driving on."

The team's penchant for scoring late goals is a quality Higgins is delighted with and something he thinks will stand them in good stead going forward.

"It's hugely important. Nothing beats late goals and the noise in the place, again it reminded me of (Jamie) McGonigle's goal against Shamrock Rovers, the roof lifted off the place.

"We want this to be a really tough venue to come to and we're going on the right track. Considering who we don't have available to us, I think the points return is very good but we need to keep going.

"I'm actually a bit disappointed there's a break next week. I would've liked to keep the momentum going but the players deserve a few days off. Well come in on Monday, refocus and try and get a good week next week.

"We had a lot of top players unavailable to us and it looks like that's going to be the case for a long enough term with Michael Duffy and Ciaron Harkin.

"The core of the team at the minute and going forward will be a lot of the players that were here last year and they deserve huge credit,

"We have a really good group here. They're really together and we keep going to the end and score a lot of late goals and fair play to them. I'm very, very proud of them."