David Sneyd

MICHAEL DUFFY WILL tell you he is a worrier.

A worrier with a positive outlook on life.

His fiancée Emily will say the same. She slags him enough about it.

The kids are a centre piece of concern.

Eli is five – going on 15 – and Georgie is two. Not quite terrible but earning his stripes. “Leave him down and turn your back, gone in a second,” Duffy says.

The middle of the night is no different. There was a time, not so long ago but feeling increasingly like another lifetime, when Duffy would gladly spend his evenings playing Call of Duty or Fifa on the computer.

No more.

Now his worries kick in.

“What’s that noise?” has become a catchphrase.

Quickly followed by “I’ll check on the boys.”

The TV is constantly paused. “I’ll be sitting staring at the monitor, when they were both younger I couldn’t settle at night at all,” Duffy says.

Even the false alarms will ring true. “The way they’re on my mind, I could hear any little noise and think it’s about them. I don’t know what it is, just a bit of panic in me.”

And when he and Emily are in bed and eventually do nod off there is no respite. Georgie will sleep through but Eli will always find comfort between his parents.

The morning wellness checks that Duffy and his Derry teammates must now fill out when they arrive for training before 9am will ask about the quality of sleep, as well as a range of other personal issues that try and determine each player’s state of mind and ability to train.

Duffy is – still – Derry’s hometown hero.

Of the starting XI for the 2-1 win over Cork City last weekend he was the only Derry-born player in the side. Not that anyone has an issue with that given the Candystripes are on a run of five wins from their last six games that has them level on 26 points with Premier Division leaders Shamrock Rovers but off the top of the table on goal difference as they head to Drogheda United tonight.

The one defeat in that run was away to Waterford, a loss that came at the end of a week in which they won away to Galway, then at home to Sligo a few days later before the trip to Munster.

Tonight’s fixture with Drogheda now has an added resonance after last season’s FAI Cup final defeat to Kevin Doherty’s side at Aviva Stadium, a result that was the catalyst for Ruaidhrí Higgins’ departure as manager after also seeing their title challenge falter when it was in their own hands entering the final month.

That’s when the positive side of his personality came through. “I knew it was going to be very different, on the pitch and off the pitch, but it was exciting. I just looked at it as it’s exciting. And sort of using last year as an extra bit of drive, like how much it hurt at the end of last season. I think it’s sort of kicked me on a bit. It’s made me want to win even more, even though I don’t feel like I needed that, but it’s just maybe that wee bit extra. Because I think the way it ended was probably the toughest in my career to take.

“I don’t give up and think ‘we’re not going to do it after last year’. It nearly gives you [more belief] . . . We’re getting closer, and then all these changes. Maybe it’s a good thing that it needed to happen.”

Still, there were tears in the Duffy household, poor Eli now of an age when he understands what success and failure means. There is no escape from expectation and demand for Duffy. “I love how positive he is about football now too, seeing him look at some of my goals on YouTube, seeing him smiling watching and then coming to me to ask about it, I think I can see how proud he is and that just makes me want to be even more successful for my kids and my family.”

When Duffy drops him down to his father in law to be minded before heading to training talk will be of the match, who they’re playing that week and what the celebration might be. But Eli also wants to win the league, especially after not being impressed by having to watch Shelbourne lift the trophy at the Ryan McBride Brandywell last November.

“That’s how mad about Derry he is. He knows the craic with the league, he says it is the main thing he wants and is always talking about the trophy and getting to lift it. I have that picture of him doing it in my head too. It (the league) is what I want to win.”

When Eli got to be mascot for a recent game he had only one demand: matching boots with his Daddy.

Michael Duffy with his son Eli as mascot recently. Michael Duffy Michael Duffy

They are both Arsenal, fans, too, and while he is Derry City by birth the Gunners won’t be forced on him. “Once he’s not Manchester United I don’t mind,” Duffy smiles.

The way new boss Tiernan Lynch works also allows for family time to be planned each weekend. When fixtures are Friday to Friday – as they are for the games with Drogheda, Rovers and Bohemians before the mid-season break from 30 May – the Derry players train Monday to Thursday and then have Saturday and Sunday off to spend with their families. It’s the first time Duffy has experience such leeway at weekends.

By the time the new Premier League season kicks off on 16 August, father and son might even make it over to the Emirates. By that stage of the League of Ireland season – with no European football this season either – Duffy intends to be in the mix for his first league title with his local club.

He will turn 31 on 28 July – sandwiched between games against Bohs and Rovers – and is feeling rejuvenated, especially after a leg break in 2022. “This is the best I’ve felt since I was back, I’m in a good place.”

That’s reinforced every day at the Derry GAA centre of excellence in Owenbeg, where the Candystripes now call home after not having a permanent base previously. “It’s amazing, the pitches were like GAA ones at the start but for the last few weeks they’ve been brilliant, and the atmosphere and togetherness of all the lads is great. Fats (Patrick McEleney) is in with us coaching every day working on set-pieces with Andy Mitchell, they’re loving it.

“The club’s a lot more professional this year. I feel like we’re probably a professional team at the minute, and I think it’s starting to show in the last month or so.”

The feelgood factor definitely is, and even on weeks like this with a tough trip to Drogheda family life is centred around football.

“I was with Eli down in the Brandywell for a wee match last night. He’s a little leftie, he’s come out of his shell and loves it now, he didn’t want to be tackle at first but now he’s dribbling around enjoying himself.”

Wonder where he gets it from?