Will Patching dreamt about Derry City's last minute winner after frustrating injury lay-off

The midfield maestro has endured a frustrating season which has been severely hampered by tendonitis in his left knee and he's been on the receiving end of some harsh criticism and social media 'nonsense' in recent months.

He's been 'driven' by those frustrations as he slowly made his way back to full fitness and having envisaged himself netting a late winner on his comeback, he willed the ball into the back of the net when showing nerves of steel to tuck away a 94th minute penalty which reignited Derry's title charge.

"It's a big relief," he said. "That's my first league goal all season. I've obviously been out with my knee injury so that was massive for me. Hopefully I can kick on now and help the team more."

It was a telling contribution and he celebrated his successful penalty kick by wheeling away towards the fans in the Southend Park stand and proceeded to let off some steam.

"I enjoyed it," he smiled. "I got in amongst the fans. I was envisaging it when I was coming on, hopefully scoring a last minute winner and I went running over to them to celebrate. It was good.

"It was a relief. We were putting the pressure on for the last 20 minutes and thankfully it paid off in the end. So big relief.

We had good spells and it was a sloppy goal to give away but the character in the team was second to none, we kept going to the death and that's what got us over the line.

"But I've been driven all week to get back playing. I'm a lot better than I was a month or two ago. My knee is feeling good. I was working to come back for this game. My knee still isn’t 100 per cent but it's a lot better than what it was and I have to keep getting rehab on it.”

The former Man City youth admitted he was on 'shoot on sight' mode when he was introduced as a 64th minute substitute for Brandon Kavanagh and he came so close with a couple of sighters.

He certainly played with a purpose, delivering arguably his best performance of the season and his introduction alongside Patrick McEleney and debutante Danny Mullen's was the catalyst for the victory.

When Cian Kavanagh was brought down by Nando Pijnaker inside the area, Michael Duffy initially grabbed the ball and was set to take the penalty but Patching insisted on doing the honours.

"That was the gaffer's orders. I looked over and he pointed at me. I'm not sure if Mickey believed me or not. I was thankful to put it in the back of the net.

"I was on a shoot on sight mode so every time I got the ball I was looking for a crack at goal. I've just been so driven the past week to get back playing and I couldn't wait to get out there."

Ben Doherty missed from the spot with eight minutes of normal time remaining and it looked like Derry had slipped up in the title race again, missing the chance to capitalise on Shamrock Rovers’ slip-up at Drogheda.

“Ben was class the whole game as well and unfortunately missed a penalty but the character we've shown to keep going until the death was great. We just put pressure on them and didn't stop, especially for the last 20 minutes. When you do that it's hard if you're on the receiving end of it, it's hard to defend. We did that and thankfully it’s paid off.”

Derry are just four points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers as they park the league campaign until August 4th’s trip to UCD and Patching is confident the Candy Stripes can take it right to the wire.

"That's the character of the team. As long as we stay in touching distance I think we can have a right crack at it. Every time the leaders drop points we have to gain them and we did tonight.”

With new signings Paul McMullan and Mullen on board and key players returning to full fitness, it bodes well for the club.

"The new signings were great tonight. I thought Paul on his debut was unbelievable. With the lads coming back from injury too there's a lot to look forward to with the games coming up and the squad is getting stronger so it's a good time to come back.”

Ruaidhri Higgins said he was delighted to see Patching playing with a smile back on his face and predicted his goal will provide him with a huge lift in confidence. It's a timely return for the player and he's excited about the season run-in, starting with Thursday's Uefa Europa Conference League first round tie against HB Torshavn in the Faroe Islands. Patching views the tie as a ''winnable one' as he targets a successful European venture.

"Hopefully it's the start of a good run now. Last year in Europe it was really tough. We had a tough draw. Riga were class and we knew even before the game we weren't favourites and still gave it a good go.

"This year it's a winnable tie. No disrespect to them and Europe is always going to be tough no matter who you play. We're going to have to be on our top game to beat them and I'm sure we'll go out together with a plan on how we go about beating them and hopefully we do."