DERRY CITY HAVE parted company with manager Declan Devine after a poor start to the season. 

Club chairman Philip O’Doherty confirmed the news in a brief statement on social media this morning. 

“Derry City FC and Declan Devine have parted company by mutual consent. The Board wish to thank Declan for his service to the Club and wish him well for the future.” 

Derry are bottom of the Premier Division table with just two points from their opening six games, a wretched start which follows an underwhelming 2020 season that saw the club finish seventh, just a single point clear of the relegation play-off place. 

This morning’s announcement brings Devine’s second managerial spell at the club to an end; the first beginning when he succeeded Stephen Kenny in 2012 having served as his assistant at the Brandywell.

He left the club in 2014 but returned in 2019, and led Derry to a fourth-placed finish and European qualification along with the EA Sports Cup final, which was lost on penalties to Dundalk. 

Derry won just five of their 18 games in the shortened 2020 season, however, and Devine has paid the price for failing to arrest that slide in the opening weeks of this season.