SOCCER LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION: STEPHEN KENNY'S suggestion this week that Derry's inability to mount a title challenge last year was partly down to the failings of Pat Fenlon's time in charge at the Brandywell is sure to add a little spice to Derry's next meeting with Bohemians.
Whoever should shoulder the blame, though, the year Kenny was in Scotland was certainly a difficult one for the northern club.
It was tough, too, for some of its players with the likes of Ciarán Martyn only now recovering the sort of form he showed as City came within a whisker of winning the league back in 2006.
Now 29, Martyn made his name at UCD, where his powerful running, pinpoint passing and eye for goal attracted plenty of attention. Kevin Mahon brought him to Derry where the Sligo native settled well before things began to go awry with an abortive move to Shelbourne followed by an indifferent loan spell at Fredrikstad in Norway.
He was, he admits, happy to get back to the Brandywell but like many others at the club he endured a frustrating time under John Robertson before suffering from a mixture of injuries and loss of form.
It has, then, been a frustrating couple of years for the naturally gifted midfielder but on Tuesday night in Inchicore, it appeared that Martyn was back to his very best with one goal set up for Thomas Stewart, another scored with a glancing header and a glistening overall performance turned in against would be title challengers who looked utterly outclassed.
“It’s nice to get back scoring goals again,” he says ahead of this evening’s visit to Derry by his hometown club. “That was the most important thing I wanted to do, get back scoring goals. The more goals I score, the more confidence I’ll gain and I think I’ll get better as the season goes on.
“I had a very disappointing season last year, I didn’t play that often. I was injured quite a lot. I just want to come back this season a lot fitter and stronger and push the other lads in my position and play a lot more games this year.
“They (Ruaidhri Higgins and Barry Molloy) were playing really well and you had to hold your hands up and say they’re in the position so you have to wait for your chance. Unfortunately, it never came for me last season but it has now, it’s my turn.”
The bigger question is whether it is, after a few near misses, Derry’s turn to lift another league title. Their performances over the first few weeks of the campaign suggest that they think it just might be and Martyn insists there is a determination not to let another chance pass them by.
“That’s our aspiration as a group,” he says, “all we want to do is win the league. It’s a long time since Derry won it, 1997, and they’re talking about it all the time. I think there is a certain determination among the group. Certainly, we don’t want to be 23 points behind the leaders. We want to be there or thereabouts.”
