Bohemians 0
Derry City 1
DERRY CITY MOVED to within three points of second-placed Cork City in the Airtricity League Premier Division with a narrow win against Bohemians at Dalymount Park tonight.
The decisive moment came on 10 minutes as Derry top scorer Rory Patterson scored the only goal of the game to ensure the Candystripes made no mistake in their first away game since the start of June.
Keith Long made five changes to his Bohs team that lost 3-1 to rivals Shamrock Rovers with Ayman Ben Mohamed returning to the starting line-up and former Ipswich Town goalkeeper Shane Supple making his debut.
Ben Mohamed looked most likely to make something happen for Bohs early on as he probed with a couple of neat interchanges in the final third.
On 10 minutes he found Ismahil Akinade as Niclas Vemmelund misjudged the chipped ball over the top to allow the Nigerian in behind but he just couldn’t get sufficient contact to lift the ball over Gerard Doherty.
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Moments later though Supple was picking the ball out of his net as Rory Patterson scored his ninth league goal of the season after a beautiful move by Derry.
Daniels found Aaron McEneff who cleverly spotted the forward run of Conor McCormack into the box and his pinpoint pull-back found Patterson whose looping effort beat the despairing dive of Supple.
Bohs responded and came close through Eoin Wearen who saw his long-range effort palmed just over the top by Doherty before Dan Byrne shot over from the resulting corner.
Derry were content to soak up pressure while McCormack was beginning to find his range of passing as he launched a number of searching balls out wide to Lucas Schubert who threatened with his pace.
Then three minutes before the break Schubert raced onto a loose ball ahead of Ian Morris to cross to Patterson who was waiting to pounce after Byrne misjudged the flight of the ball in the air, but the Derry forward couldn’t double his tally and Supple got down well to save his header.
After the interval Derry continued to play on the counter with Bohs desperately seeking an equaliser. They did have the ball in the net on 57 minutes as Paddy Kavanagh found the unmarked Jake Kelly at the back post but his volleyed finish was ruled out as he was adjudged to have been offside.
Mark Quigley was introduced for Kelly shortly afterwards and he sought to make a difference but he couldn’t direct his header on target after being found by Kavanagh.
Quigley then found himself in behind on 72 minutes after a mix up in the Derry defence as Vemmelund’s weak header allowed the Bohs striker to attempt to lob Doherty who reacted well to get off his line and stop with an outstretched left hand.
The visitors almost doubled their lead on the break as a Schubert cut back from the by line found Barry McNamee who crossed to McCormack whose acrobatic effort went just wide of the post.
Bohs almost drew level in the dying moments as substitute Kurtis Byrne pulled back to Morris but he couldn’t direct his effort on target from six yards.
BOHEMIANS: Shane Supple; Derek Pender, Dave Mulcahy, Dan Byrne, Ian Morris; Paddy Kavanagh (Marco Chindea, 90), Roberto Lopes, Eoin Wearen (Kurtis Byrne, 73), Jake Kelly (Mark Quigley, 57), Aymen Ben Mohamed; Ismahil Akinade.
DERRY CITY: Gerard Doherty; Conor McDermott, Niclas Vemmelund, Aaron Barry, Dean Jarvis; Aaron McEneff, Conor McCormack, Josh Daniels (Nathan Boyle, 73), Lucas Schbert (Harry Monaghan, 81), Barry McNamee; Rory Patterson (Jordan Allen, 90).
Referee: Neil Doyle
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