Cork City's Seani Maguire believes that the his new side can challenge for the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division next season, after they were narrowly edged out 1-0 by title-chasing Derry City in the Sports Direct FAI Cup.
Sam Todd's goal, deep in the second half, was the difference between the two teams as Maguire played his first full match for the Rebels since returning to the club where he first came to prominence.
Starting in attack alongside Ruairí Keating, the two looked dangerous throughout and helped to create chances that, on another day, would have been enough to win the cup tie.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue afterwards, Maguire admitted to being impressed by the level of his new team-mates, who look bound for the top flight next season as they are 15 points clear at the top of the First Division.
"That was my first public game since April when I was playing with Carlisle," Maguire said. "Everyone in this league is coming towards the back end of the season or business end of the season, and I'm kind of starting to build up momentum.
"That was the first 90 minutes, but I felt good. I suppose the last 20/25 minutes I started to tire, but my body felt good.
"I think the lads felt a little bit frustrated in there, but at the same time, there’s a lot of belief because Derry are a good side and they're going to be challenging for the title in the Premier Division this year.
"If that's the standard in the Premier Division and if you're a neutral coming tonight, you probably think Cork City should be there or thereabouts in the Premier Division in terms of the quality that we showed tonight.
"I thought me and Keats did really well tonight, um, in terms of our link up play and being together.
"That's our first 90 minutes shared on a pitch and I suppose, for Keats he hasn't played as much football this year. I think the more we play together, the more minutes we get playing with each other, it'll only get better."
For Corkman Maguire, the plan was always to return home after his playing days were finished.
The Republic of Ireland international has spent six seasons at Preston North End, before shorter spells at Coventry and Carlisle, so when the opportunity arose for him to return to his native city, he took it with both hands.
Now he’s eager to prove that he can still perform to the highest level, and wants to be part of a title push with the Rebels next season.
"I feel like I look after myself mentally and physically, and I still have a lot of years in front of me and hopefully my best is still ahead of me in the Cork City jersey," he said.
"I have great ambition and you can see tonight the signs of not only just competing next year in the Premier Division, but you can go into next year thinking we can give this a good rattle and thinking we can actually go on and challenge.
"We played tonight like we're a Premier Division team.
"Derry are second in the league, a couple of points behind Shels and we were a better team tonight. You can look after the game and you see, yeah, Derry have won 1-0 but we can take huge belief and inspiration from tonight.
"I feel like we're, we're always going to settle in Cork when my career in England finished," he said of his return home.
"So to come back at this age and when our baby's born, it's helped me and it's helped my wife and our baby now to settle, and hopefully settle in Cork in years to come and let our young fella grow up in Cork, surrounded by family and friends.
"That's the most important thing I feel. The football can take care of itself because I enjoy playing at Cork and it's my happy place really.
"You can even see tonight that's probably the best I've played in a long while. I was playing in my natural position, so for myself I can take a huge amount of confidence going forward."
