Ruaidhri Higgins knows where Derry City must improve to mount a serious title challenge this year

Manager Ruaidhri Higgins and captain Patrick McEleney are primed for another big season with Derry City

Derry City’s title charge begins at home to Drogheda United on Friday night, with Ruaidhri Higgins demanding that his team learn from the mistakes which cost them last year.

Over the course of 2023, the Candystripes dropped 20 points to teams in the bottom half of the table, with City’s first two opponents this year proving particularly problematic.

Drogheda took four points from Derry, which included a win at the Brandywell, while next week’s opponents Sligo Rovers took seven points over four meetings.

These are facts which are not lost on the City boss, who is looking for a big improvement this time around.

“It’s something we have to learn from,” he admitted.

“From the bottom five teams in the League, we took 40 points from a possible 60 which you would like that to be a bit more.

“I think this year more than any, you can see the two promoted teams are really good sides as well so it will be an extremely competitive League but our home form will be crucial and we want to get off to a good start.”

Drogheda have improved considerably in recent seasons under Kevin Doherty and will not be coming to the Brandywell to roll over.

“They’ve been taken over and probably have a bit more money to spend than what they had previously and they’ve recruited well which they’ve always done, to be fair,” Higgins commented.

“They’ve always been very shrewd with their recruitment. They’ve caused us problems. We took seven points from 12 against them last year and the year before might’ve been less than that.

“They’re a tough nut to crack and always well set up, particularly against the top end teams. They’ve caused a number of top end