Another regular morning for Derry City. Arrived around 8.45am and soon headed over for foam roll, stretch and mobility. Surprisingly enough after playing my first full 90min in nearly a month my legs weren’t too heavy or sore at all. If I did have any niggles or soreness from the night before, the foam rolling certainly helped to work that out of the body.

Training was expect to be recovery for some of us who had played considerable minutes the night before, however it wasn’t that way. A regular warm up, then some 4v2 and 5v2 possession grids to focus on sharpness and concentration. From here we were split into 3 teams to play 7v7 to go, with 7 players around the outside. It is always the restrictions that challenge the players in these games. It was 2 touch on the inside with a one touch finish, and for the players spread around the outside, they only had one touch. So it really works the mind and execution is crucial, especially when playing to the outside players to allow them to even be able to play a ball first time effectively. The games are always competitive which creates a good training environment. We cooled down, and that was training done for another day. The squad was named who play in the friendly on Friday, however I wasn’t included, because it is their regular first team players.

After training the manager asked if I could speak with him, so once I got showered I headed up to his office. He was very open and honest to me about the situation. He gave very positive feedback from my performance in the game last night, but also in the development I have made even in the short three weeks that I have been here. Although this was positive, the manager is in a situation where he doesn’t want to sign a player who is unlikely to get consistent and regular game time. So his recommendation is that I sign with a Northern Ireland Premier League team, in which I should get consistent game time, and I would be able to be monitored by Derry staff during my time at that team. His intentions with this are so that I gain experience at this level by playing consistently, and then he would hopefully bring me back to Derry City in January at the beginning of their preseason. No specific details have been confirmed just yet however in the coming days I shall have more information regarding this opportunity.

Five of us then headed out for lunch and then a walk along the waterfront where a few of the boats from Clipper Round the World were on the river. Clipper Round the World is one of the “biggest challenges of the natural world and an endurance test like no other. With no previous sailing experience necessary, it’s a record breaking 40,000 nautical mile race around the world on a 70-foot ocean racing yacht.” Across the weekend there will be more boats, venders and market type food venders along the waterfront, with only a few their today. I may visit it on the weekend also. After our walk we then headed back to the bowling alley where we played another 2 games of bowling. This time I redeemed myself from my previously poor performance, placing 2nd in both games. Eventually we headed for home.