Today was the teams off day. After a casual morning in the house, I headed into the city center to meet with Assistant Coach, Donal O’Brien for lunch. We met up in the town square in front of Guildhall and then headed up the street to Downey’s Bar for lunch. Donal knows the head chef there so we chatted to him for a bit. But lunch was more about the opportunity for us to talk about my plans, my intentions of being at Derry City. It was also a chance to get to know each other a little more,

which was nice.

Donal was upfront and honest with me as he always has been, and he said that he sees quality in my play, he sees strengths of my game that a lot of other players lack. But at the end of the day, it’s about what the manager sees in me, what the manager is looking for in his squad etc. Of course Donal will be of support for me and put good words in, but the final decision isn’t up to him. This was a positive however, because it gave me confidence to keep on working hard and keep going, because at this stage of the season, where there is still approx 18 games left, having depth in the team, players challenging for spots etc. creates a good environment for the team to keep striving. Who knows what may happen in the next few days and weeks.

Once we were done with lunch, Donal headed back to work for an hour and a half while I happily wandered the city, checking out some historical sights and attractions.

As I said in one of the early blogs, Derry used to be a walled city, and the wall is still there, so I walked the full wall, that in spots, overlooks the city. Along the way there are various monuments, cannons, information boards and churches that I was able to look at and read about. After I circled the city on the wall, I headed down to the Peace Bridge to take a walk across it. The bridge itself is a main attraction as you come into the city as you see it cross the river. I took a nice walk across it and along a path beside the river, before I returned back to meet Donal as he finished work for him to drop me home.

It was a refreshing day for me, as things had begun to be challenging, and I was mentally slowing down a bit. But this was a nice day to get out of the house, explore the city, and have some faith restored in my efforts with training. Onward from here.