Bastien Hery leaves Bohemians on loan to Derry City

Hery was voted onto the 2018 PFAI Team of Year while at Waterford but has failed to spark for Bohemians

Bastien Hery. Photo by Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

The progress of youthful midfielders Dawson Devoy and Ross Tierney played a part in Bastien Hery’s departure from Bohemians today, according to manager Keith Long.

Hery is moving to Derry City on loan for the remainder of the season having failed to spark at Dalymount since being hailed by Long as a “high-quality” acquisition from Linfield in January.

The playmaker – a French youth international while at Paris Saint-Germain before representing Madagascar at senior level – had only featured sporadically for the Gypsies this term, not getting a minute of action in their Europa Conference League run.

Long’s side take a 1-0 first-leg lead into Thursday’s second-round tie against Luxembourg side Dudelange at the Aviva Stadium. All 8,000 tickets for the restricted attendance sold out in 90 minutes.

Devoy (19) and Tierney (20) have played prominent roles in their progress, with captain Keith Buckley another element of a midfield Hery struggled to break into.

“With the form some of the players are in, they are a little bit ahead of Bastien in terms of team performance, how the team want to play,” said Long about Hery, voted by her peers onto the 2018 PFAI Team of Year while at Waterford.

“Bastian is a quality player, he has very, very good attributes but it just didn't quite work out for him.

“Primarily it's down to the emergence of Dawson Devoy in the No. 8 position. Keith Buckley is our captain and has been playing extremely well and, with Ross Tierney’s progression this year as a No. 10, in many ways the team picks itself at the moment.

“Bastien has found his game-time hard to come by and he will hopefully get that now in Derry.”

Derry manager Ruaidhri Higgins, whose side are seventh in the table, six points off fourth-placed Bohs, said: “Derry City fans have seen Bastien play before and know what he’s capable of.

“He’s someone I’ve obviously known about for some time and is the type of player we’ve been looking for.

“I know the past 18 months probably haven’t worked out for him the way he planned but he’ll get the opportunity here to get back on track. He’s fit and raring to go and will go straight into the squad for Saturday night’s match in Longford.” 

Hery insisted he’s got an incentive to get his season back on track: “I’m very happy to be here and having played at Brandywell a few times I’m looking forward to showing supporters what I can do.

“Yes, I feel I have a point to prove and that can be my motivation to do well for Derry City. It will be good to get started.”