Higgins full of praise for Patching’s influence
WILL Patching will make his 100th appearance when Derry City meet champions Shamrock Rovers at the Brandywell tonight.
The 25-year-old, who originally joined on loan from Dundalk under Declan Devine in 2021, has been the most influential player under Ruaidhri Higgins ever since, scoring 30 goals and providing 24 assists, the first midfielder to reach such high numbers since Aaron Mceneff in 2018.
Higgins is now hoping that Patching, who has scored in each of City’s last two games, can help them find some consistency ahead of a weekend double header against Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic.
“Will’s in a really good vein of form,” Higgins acknowledged.
“To be honest with you, in my three years here, he’s been right up there as one of the most influential players in my time here.
“Probably bar the start of last season, where he had a niggly injury, his form’s been very consistent and he’s really produced for me and for the club. I’ve no doubt that that can continue.”
Derry are yet to win successive games this season, but Higgins feels that most clubs are facing the same problems in a very competitive Premier Division, and is confident that with players returning from injury, the best is still to come from his ambitious team.
“If you look through the whole League, nobody really has shown, bar Shelbourne for that period, an unbelievable level of consistency,” he said.
“It’s just a matter of us focusing on ourselves and trying to get a big win now on Friday and hopefully it gives us a kick to move on from.”
This weekend is huge with the visit of the champions quickly followed by St Pat’s making the same journey on Monday. “They’re big games and they’re great games to be involved in,” Higgins continued.
“They know how to win Leagues and they’ve set the standards for everyone else in the country they try and reach.
“They’re great games. I think the crowd really gets up for it as well and we’ll need that on Friday night and hopefully we can put in a really good performance.”