Derry City 0
St Patrick’s Athletic 0
(St Patrick’s Athletic win 4-3 on penalties)
DERRY CITY suffered penalty shoot-out heartache for the second time in three days, as St Patrick’s Athletic booked their place in the Sports Direct FAI Cup quarter-final.
In an entertaining tie, Ruaidhri Higgins’ side had enough opportunities to win the game in the 120 minutes, but just like their Europa Conference League loss to Tobol on Thursday night, they paid the penalty in the shoot-out.
City started on the front foot and went close twice in quick succession to take an early lead but Adam O’Reilly and Brandon Kavanagh were unable to break the deadlock.
The home side continued to dominate the opening 30 minutes with Cameron Dummigan also going close with a 20-yard strike, which just sailed over Dean Lyness’ crossbar.
On 32 minutes another neat passing move ended with Will Patching getting some space inside the box, but his powerful effort was superbly blocked by John-Alan McGrath.
Soon after Conor Carty should have given the visitors the lead as he easily got away from Cameron McJannet, but from close range, his attempted lob over City keeper Brian Maher was off target.
Just before the break, the Saints went close to taking the lead as a quick counter-attack ended with Sam Curtis’ low right-footed strike being superbly kept out by Maher, the keeper getting his right boot to the shot to divert it away for a corner.
Derry were forced into a change just before the hour mark with centre-back Shane McEleney, having to be replaced by Mark Connolly, after the defender failed to recover from an early knock in the second half.
Both managers made changes to try and win the game in normal time with Michael Duffy and Sadou Diallo coming on for City, while Thomas Lonergan and Jake Mulraney came off the bench for the Saints.
On 74 minutes a lovely Brandon Kavanagh cross from the right found Jamie McGonigle and his glancing header was tipped over by Lyness.
Maher had to make a top-drawer save on 80 minutes as substitute Mulraney found fellow sub Lonergan, but his powerful header was parried away by the former Republic of Ireland U21 international.
Derry were denied a late goal three minutes later as Patching’s superb 20-yard free-kick, which had Lyness well beaten, came back off the post.
The home side went close on 111 minutes as Michael Duffy’s left wing centre found fellow substitute Daniel Mullen, but his goal-bound close-range effort was blocked by Joe Redmond.
City had the early advantage in the shoot-out as Jake Mulraney fired wide, but Duffy side-footed wide and Connolly’s final penalty came back off the post, to spark wild celebrations amongst the travelling support.
Wexford will join the Richmond Park outfit in the last eight after they earned a 1-0 win over St Patrick’s CY at Irishtown Stadium earlier today.
Darragh Levingston’s goal just before the break was enough for the First Division outfit to prevail against their non-league opponents.
Derry City: Maher, Boyce (Diallo 69), S McEleney (Connolly 59), McJannet, Coll; Dummigan (Doherty 78), O’Reilly, Patching (P McEleney 105); B Kavanagh, McGonigle (Mullen 78), McMullan (Duffy 69).
St Patrick’s Athletic: Lyness, Breslin, Redmond, Lennon (McCormack 105), Forrester, McCelland (Lonergan 69 – Melia 113), Doyle (Leavy 78), Carty, Curtis (Mulraney 69), Murphy (Nolan 87), McGrath.
Referee: Neil Doyle (Dublin).