DEDICATED FOLLOWER OF PASSION
Hegarty driven as much as ever with Candystripes
PAUL HEGARTY has made more return trips to Derry than the Maiden City Flyer.
Two spells as a player preceded four as an assistant coach as well as a brief spell in 2014 as caretaker boss.
Now in his seventh stint with the club, this time as No.2 to boss Ruaidhri Higgins, it’s easy to see why City have asked him back again.
Hegarty is the link between the 1989 Treble winners, the 1997 League championship side, and the 2006 and 2012 Cup-winning teams.
“I have been away a few times. I keep returning,” he said. “It is a great set-up and we have a great squad of players.
“We are not going to make any excuses about how it is going for us (Derry are eight points off League leaders Shelbourne).
“Given the squad of players we have, we need to be up there competing and come the end of the season, we hopefully will be.”
Season
A no-excuse culture has always been one of Hegarty’s core values, the chief reason Stephen Kenny recruited him to be his sidekick ahead of the 2005 season.
“There’s just this honesty about him,” said Kenny at the time.
“Players like him. They like to know where they stand. And there is never any doubt with Heggsie. If the work isn’t being done, he’ll say it.”
For two years he said it every day on the training field, Kenny adjusting the start times of his sessions to accommodate those members of his playing and coaching staff who were in fulltime employment.
A forester by trade, Hegarty used to work through his lunch hour in order to finish his shift in time to make it to training.
In Kenny’s first spell at the club, he never missed one session. Nor did he miss a day’s work.
That year when Derry embarked on a scarcely believable European run that saw them defeat Gothenborg home and away, then Gretna, before losing to Paris St-Germain, he booked the time off as part of his annual leave.
Except for the Gretna game. That match finished in Fir Park at 9.35pm. By 1am Hegarty and striker Kevin McHugh were on the boat from Stranraer to Larne, returning to their Donegal homes just before 5am, Hegarty starting work three hours later.
Yet until this year he never countenanced going full-time and now that he has, he admits the adjustment has been tricky.
“If something is in your blood, then that’s it, that is your passion, that is what will get you out of the house,” said Hegarty.
“Like, the only reason I was away from the game for two years was because I needed a hip operation. As soon as the call came to come back, there was no hesitation to say yes.
“Even the two years I was out, I was at a match every Friday night, and then I would go to one on a Saturday in the Irish League.
“I enjoy it. Always have. This is the first time I have been full-time and I found that a bit strange, sitting round the house waiting for training to begin.
“Before it was all-go, rushing from work to training and back again. But it’s a challenge, the set-up is good, the players are good.”
But the results aren’t. A scoreless draw at Shels on Monday followed a harrowing performance against Galway last Friday.
Derry expects.
So far this season, they have delivered in fits and starts.
“While it is not going great at the minute, I thought we were the better side against Shelbourne,” said Hegarty. “But in the final third we did not create enough.”
Struggling
Meanwhile, John Mountney has been praised by boss Stephen O’Donnell for returning from back to back cruciate ligament injuries to aid struggling Dundalk’s cause.
Monday’s comeback against Drogheda was the five-time League winner’s first start for the Lilywhites in 18 months.
Appointed as club captain by O’Donnell, Mountney is seen as crucial to the club’s bid to get off the bottom of the Premier Division.
“He was very good in his first start in 18 months,” said O’Donnell. “Credit to him, after two cruciates, to come back in that condition and to slot in. He gave us that bit of manliness and leadership.
“He should be delighted with himself. It’s just about building that and layering that up now. He’s our biggest personality. That’s what people sort of don’t see. He’s been here since the get-go, since 2012. He’s just a great example for every player to look at.
“I don’t know is heartache too strong of a word, heartache is like a bereavement or that, but in footballing terms, to do backto-back cruciates at 29/30, that would end most lads, but he stayed plugging away.
“When you think of that journey, nine months each, especially the second time you do it, you know the journey you’re going to have to go on to get back to a competitive level.
“But he’s come back — his markers, his speed and everything like that is still what it was pre the first cruciate. He’s a credit and it’s great for him to be back and come back, touch wood, unscathed, and play well.”