Mark Connolly happy to join club 'on the up'

Coleraine FC has announced the pre-contract signing of former Derry City captain Mark Connolly.

The experienced defender has agreed to join the Bannsiders ahead of the upcoming January transfer window.

Connolly, who hails from Clones in Monaghan, started his career in England and was on the books at Wolverhampton Wanderers, Bolton Wanderers, Macclesfield Town (loan) and Crawley Town.

He then moved north of the border and featured for the likes of Kilmarnock, Dundee United and Dunfermline Athletic (loan).

Connolly then moved back to his native Republic of Ireland and after a loan spell at Dundalk, he joined Ruaidhri Higgins at Derry City where he spent three-and-a-half years at the Brandywell.

Connolly's arrival marks a boost for supporters after fellow defender Kodi Lyons-Foster suffered an injury last week and is expected to be out for a considerable period of time.

Speaking about Connolly's arrival, Bannsiders boss Higgins spoke of his happiness at working with the former Republic of Ireland youth international once again.

He said: "I worked with Mark for a few years and he's a player I know really, really well.

"He will bring great value to the squad. He's obviously really well experienced but he's a really good footballer as well.

"Mark suits how we want to play and he'll certainly give us that know-how and experience that we will need heading into the second half of the season and further on as well."

Connolly lifted the Scottish Championship title during his time at Dundee United, as well as the FAI Cup under Higgins at Derry City.

With that in mind, Higgins knows he's bringing in a winner to his changing room.

He explained: "He's a very competitive person by nature - regardless of what he does.

"I think if you look at his last season at Derry City, particularly the second half of the campaign, he was outstanding.

"We are delighted that we are able to bring him to the club and I think a fresh start will be really good for him.”

Speaking following his move, the 33-year-old admitted he was delighted to be joining a club 'with huge ambition.'

"I spoke with the manager over the last week, had a chat with him to see if I'd be interested coming to the club," said the Monaghan native.

"Obviously when he made the phone call I had a chat with him and it made my decision easy.

"I had a few other options – further afield and some in Ireland – but speaking to the manager I kind of made my mind up that I want to come to a football club that I feel is pushing in the right direction.

"It's a football club that I feel is doing everything right. From what I've seen already it's been brilliant.

"The manager kept talking about the dressing room and about how good the boys are, I've come in and first day everyone has been very welcoming.

"You want to win things you need a bit of everything – good footballers and you need a bit of the other side as well - which I'm sure I can probably help with.

"I'm just here to help and to help drive standards as much as I can, try to get boys to peak to the highest potential that they can get to - that's really my job.

"I can't play until January 2 but it's good to get in amongst the boys from now until then.

"I watched them on Saturday against Carrick Rangers, which was an extremely tough game, but they showed both sides of how to win football matches.

"I think everyone knows Coleraine are a very good footballing team but the other day they showed they can do the other side which is what's needed.

"It's nice signing for a team and they're sitting at the top of the table, albeit a few games in hand, but for me it's an exciting time.

"It's an opportunity of coming to a football club that's on the up. Things are being done right and people are in areas to push the club as high as it can get.

"If you want to win things you need to be able to do both sides and the boys showed that at the weekend," he added.