Derry City 1
Shelbourne 0
Ronan McNamara reports from Tolka Park
A LATE DEFLECTED goal from Ryan Graydon broke Shelbourne hearts and gave Derry City all three points at Tolka Park.
After a hat trick of superb saves from Brendan Clarke it was the cruellest of deflections that beat him in stoppage time to give Derry a deserved win based on their second half performance.
The best chance of a dreadful first half fell to Derry inside 30 seconds and the opening 45 might have been so much different had Graydon’s effort from outside the area bent the right side of the post.
That was all she wrote for the opening period with Shels venturing into numerous good attacking positions without having the sufficient quality to test Brian Maher.
Damien Duff’s charges were guilty of playing backwards while Derry were laboured and ponderous in possession.
James Akintunde had a goal disallowed for offside but he ought to have got himself on the scoresheet. With the second half two minutes old, Joe Thomson went on a rampaging run down the left and pulled the ball back for the unmarked striker but his effort from 12 yards dribbled into the grateful arms of Clarke.
The Shels stopper was called into much more meaningful action just after the hour. First he did very well to tip McEleney’s curling effort over the bar before Cameron McJannett’s goalbound header was blocked by the home rearguard.
Michael Duffy was introduced from the bench and he almost made an instant impact moments later. He beat Shane Farrell and drilled a low cross into the six-yard area and Akintunde will wonder how he didn’t make the net bulge and send the 40 Derry supporters into raptures, but Clarke did brilliantly to smother him.
From there it was a wave of Derry pressure as they pressed for what would surely be the winner. Gavin Molloy gave the ball away in midfield and Graydon pounced and drove into the box but once again the fantastic Clarke was on hand to keep Shels in the game, charging out to divert the ball for a corner.
But Graydon would have the last laugh and he broke Shels hearts after his shot took a wicked deflection off Kameron Ledwidge and ended up in the net in added time.
Shelbourne: Brendan Clarke; Luke Byrne, Shane Griffin, Conor Kane, Kameron Ledwidge, Gavin Molloy; Shane Farrell, JJ Lunney (Jad Hakiki 75), Brian McManus (Aodh Dervin 66), Jack Moylan; Sean Boyd.
Derry City: Brian Maher; Ciaran Coll, Cameron Dummigan, Shane McEleney; Sadou Diallo, Ryan Graydon (Daniel Lafferty 92), Brandon Kavanagh (Michael Duffy 60), Patrick McEleney, Cameron McJannet, Joe Thomson (Ronan Boyce 60); James Akintunde (Cian Kavanagh 77).