By Mark McCadden

Copyright irishmirror

Derry City’s hopes of making more significant upgrades to the Ryan McBride Brandywell received a huge setback on Thursday.

The League of Ireland club had submitted a bid for just over €13.5million from the NI Football Fund and were hopeful of succeeding.

However, they were absent from the list of successful applicants when it was announced by sports minister Gordon Lyons.

The 20 successful clubs across Northern Ireland will share a pot of €95million. In total, 38 clubs lodged bids worth just under €160million.

Derry wanted the money to complete phase two of the Mark Farren Stand, to upgrade their pitch and to improve the floodlights at their stadium.

They were given a glimmer of hope that Thursday’s rejection would not spell the end of their prospects of securing funding.

Minister Lyons said: “No-one is getting kicked out of this process, it is ongoing. I’m not saying no to anybody, I’m saying not yet and we will help them as much as possible.”

Earlier this year, Derry City opened their new North Stand, a €2.3million development built to accommodate up to 2,800 fans, with an 1,800 seating capacity.

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