SOCCER:It's a measure, perhaps, of the progress made by Stephen Kenny in his couple of years at the Brandywell that his successor, Pat Fenlon, now finds himself coming under pressure to provide early evidence he can bring Derry City to the "next level".

In City's terms that means one thing: winning the league. Fenlon's ability in that context is well established from his days at Shelbourne. And on Kenny's departure at the end of last season, the Dubliner was the obvious choice for directors keen to see their club make that next step.

Things have not, however, exactly gone to plan for Fenlon. A couple of decent early results were followed in recent weeks by six league and Setanta Cup games without a win. The sequence, in fact, consisted of one draw and five defeats. Worse, three of the defeats were at home, the last a 1-4 humiliation by title rivals Cork City. And the draw, against Linfield in the Setanta Cup, involved surrendering a two-goal lead.

Fenlon concedes the supporters have a right to be upset and insists he and his players will get things right in the months ahead. He realises too, however, that since Kenny did everything at the club over two-and-a-half seasons bar win the championship, there is little else that would impress an expectant fan base.

The supporters, of course, can be expected to show impatience; that's what fans do when things go awry. But it would be astonishing if those who recruited Fenlon were now regretting their decision. Even if this season were to prove a write-off, he would deserve more time.

Asked what has gone wrong, Fenlon points - somewhat surprisingly - to signs of nervousness in his team whenever they have conceded goals. This is, as he notes, a young group of players and they, too, are having to face up to the fact they are many people's title favourites. But over the last two seasons they showed remarkable resilience, scoring many important late goals to win big games and going unbeaten, during the latter half of 2005, for 25 games.

A change of manager, though, is always likely to unsettle a team, and while Fenlon reckons he has inherited a better squad than the one he took over at Shelbourne, he has nothing like the free hand he enjoyed at Tolka Park.

Having moved to Derry just as Shelbourne were imploding financially, Fenlon did try to bring certain of his former players, notably Owen Heary, Joseph Ndo and Gary O'Neill, north. But City operate on a budget little more than half what Shelbourne had, and so he could not make the move worthwhile to players who had attractive offers from other Dublin clubs.

The bottom line, though, is that the squad he does have should be capable of mounting a serious challenge for the championship. It is essentially the same squad that won two cups last year, and while they may not have sparkled this season, there is plenty of quality there.

The likes of Peter Hutton, Seán Hargan and Gary Beckett provide a backbone of experience - since added to by the arrival of title winners Greg O'Halloran and Alan Moore - but there is ample young local talent too, Killian Brennan, Kevin Deery and Barry Molloy among those to stand out over the past couple of the seasons.

The size of the squad available to Fenlon is reflected by the fact he has fielded 22 players over the club's opening 11 league and cup games - no other manager has used more. And if there is a reservation about the squad it concerns his goalkeepers, an admittedly crucial area.

Not that there necessarily is a weakness there, though Patrick Jennings had not hugely impressed until being recalled to perform well in Friday's narrow win at Waterford United. Ola Tidman will likely want to forget his outing against Cork, but it would be harsh to dismiss him on the basis of one game. And the hope must be that the pair will settle and that David Forde won't be badly missed in the short term.

For Fenlon a key task now is to deflect outside pressure not only from that pair but from all of his squad, something he was adept at doing while overseeing those three title wins in four years at Shelbourne.

The two-goal win tonight that would put City into the semi-finals of the Setanta Cup would help, though cups have not really been Fenlon's forte since he moved into management, the defeat by Linfield in the all-Ireland competition's inaugural year the closest he came to lifting one at Tolka Park.

There, the real pressure was to deliver successive league titles and do well in Europe, and you sense any man who can bounce back from Shelbourne's elimination, before the big money kicked in, from the Champions League in the summer of 2002 by Hibernians of Malta can probably handle a rocky start to the new season with Derry.

He could, in any case, point out that at the same stage last year Shelbourne had fallen further - eight as distinct from seven points - behind the then leaders, Derry City.

Kenny's men eventually missed out on top spot on goal difference, while the other team to make strong early running, Drogheda United, finished four points adrift of Shelbourne.

This time around, one suspects, St Patrick's Athletic and Drogheda would again be well advised to keep an eye out for the Candystripes looming on their shoulders.