Hegarty joins City’s back-room team

Derry City manager Roddy Collins today put the finishing touches to his backroom team at the Brandywell for the 2014 season.
Michael Hegarty has joined Derry City's back-room team.Michael Hegarty has joined Derry City's back-room team.
Michael Hegarty has joined Derry City's back-room team.

Coleraine midfielder Michael Hegarty has joined the club as Physiotherapist, the backroom team can now look forward to the season ahead.

Having spent the first number of weeks in charge of the Candystripes looking after off-the-field issues, Roddy is now happy that he has a good team to assist both himself and Peter Hutton as they start planning for the League and European campaigns that lie ahead.

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Speaking at the Club’s training grounds in The Vale Centre at Greysteel this afternoon, Roddy spoke about the backroom staff that he has assembled: “I feel that we have been able to put together a team that is full of very professional lads with a great mixture of personalities.

“In Peter (Hutton) as my right hand man, I have somebody who is a legend at this club. He has played here and he knows all the lads very well.

“His experience that he gained as first a caretaker manager at the Brandywell, and then as manager of Finn Harps can only make our partnership stronger.

“We have brought in Declan McIntyre as our new goalkeeping coach and his bright personality is already rubbing off on both Gerard (Doherty) and Ciaran (Gallagher).

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“In Declan we have what I would consider as the best goalkeeping coach in the country. His work with the FAI as a development officer as well as with some of the international teams speaks volumes of his professionalism and quality as a coach.

“I am very happy that Marty McCann will be staying as our first team coach. I know Marty going back a long time, the two of us gained our coaching badges together.

“I know that Marty is an excellent coach and one that the lads in the squad get on well with and have great respect for.

“One of the main roles that I wanted to get the right person for was our Sports fitness coach, and after an interview process during the off season Pierce Lafferty was the man that fitted the role. The main issue that people who have stopped me in the street wanted to talk about was the constant injury list.

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“Over the last number of seasons they have seen big name players sitting in the stand watching games with injury after injury. With Pierce at the club now I am fully confident that this will become a thing of the past. You can’t challenge for trophies in this league if you’re missing your best players.”

Meanwhile the squad have been back to pre-season training since last Saturday and so far all has been going very well with the addition of some new faces to the squad and also some trialists.

“I’m delighted with the way the lads have kept their fitness up during the off season, with most of them coming back in really good shape,” added the City boss.

“Enda (Curran) and Danny (Ventre) joined up with the squad and they have been welcomed into the Derry City family with open arms. All the players are getting on really well at the minute and that’s always good news with a tough schedule ahead of them. Of course we have been joined by a number of trialists who I asked to join us this week to see if they can become part of the squad and so far they have impressed both myself and Peter.

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“In particular Leon McSweeney and Mark Stewart have both impressed me, and Marvin Torvic has also upped his intensity since arriving at the start of the week. We hope to be joined on Monday by former Sligo Rovers and Institute left-back Iarfhlaith Davoren and then Tim Clancy will join up with the team, Monday, January 27.”

The Dubliner also spoke of the partnership that he has helped forge between the Vale Centre and Derry City since his arrival.

“I happened upon the Vale Centre on my way up to Derry just before Christmas and dropped in to see the facility first hand. After being shown around by the staff, I had a meeting with one of the directors of the facility Paddy McGuinness and an agreement was put in place with the Vale Centre for our pre season training and into the future.

“The Vale Centre is a perfect fit for Derry City FC. The facility has a state of the art astro pitch as well as a top quality grass pitch for us to do our training on. They also have a good gym that the players can use during the day, a full canteen so the lads can have something to eat in between sessions, and a resident physio who can be called upon in emergencies.”

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Columba Mailey from the Vale Centre also spoke to us about the link up with the club.

“Having a professional team training here at the centre has been great for us over the last two weeks. It really has started a bit of a buzz around the centre and within the local Greysteel community. The surrounding area would predominately be a GAA heavy community so to have a side like Derry City come here for their pre-season camp has been great.

“We have noticed a lot of the local school children have been coming down just to watch the lads train and that’s great, not just for Derry City but for all of us here who are involved with the Vale Centre.”

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