GERARD Doherty wants Paul Hegarty as the next full time Derry City manager.
The 34-year-old, who himself is out of contract at the end of this season, has seen enough in the past few weeks to convince him that Hegarty is the right choice to succeed Peter Hutton as full time boss at the Brandywell.
“I definitely hope he gets the job full-time,” said the City goalkeeper. “You only have to look at the last couple of months the way things have picked up and the way the players have responded to him, he has also brought in a few people into the back-room staff, which the players have also really responded well too as well.”
The Candy Stripes have taken ten points from the last four games, with Saturday evening’s win over
Limerick securing Premier Division safety after a long and difficult season.
Goals from Mark Timlin and Barry McNamee earned a deserved win for City, who remain in sixth, now out of reach of the six other teams who will scrap for survival in the last two weeks of the season.
“We obviously still have another couple of games to concentrate on so, we aren’t going to get too carried away but to be honest we have carried a good bit of form into the last few games,” Doherty continued.
“As I said before the game, the training the temp and everything about the place has really stepped up a couple of notches over the last month of two. We are putting in the hard work and the last couple of victories have been amazing and we have fully deserved them.”
Doherty is one of a number of players to be out of contract at the end of the season, and the Board of Directors will have to move quickly to put plans in place ahead of the 2016 season. While Paul Hegarty refuses to be drawn on the possibility of staying on full time until the conclusion of the league campaign, it is understood that he is in continuous talks with the club.