Finn Harps 0
Derry City 5
DERRY CITY’S CLIMB up the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division table continued with a hammering of neighbours Finn Harps in Ballybofey tonight.
Kenny Shiels’ team now find themselves in second place and will take heart from a cutting edge shown against their rivals, who they had failed to overcome in their previous two outings this term.
Aaron McEneff held his nerve on two occasions in the first 45 minutes to get the better of Richard Brush from penalties in front of the vociferous Harps support at the Town end of Finn Park.
Nathan Boyle added a third for the visitors before a Lukas Schubert breakaway strike made it four in the latter stages. Keith Ward dinked a fifth to complete the rout.
McEneff’s first penalty came on 18 minutes after Ciaran Coll was adjudged to have fouled Schubert, although there were protestations claiming the incident had taken place outside of the box.
Brush guessed the right way that time but went the wrong way when he was eye-to-eye with McEneff again two minutes before half-time. This time there was little debate as Barry Molloy fouled Schubert for a stone-waller. McEneff went the same way again; Brush didn’t and Derry were 2-0 up at the break.
Then, on 53 minutes, Boyle – who was part of Harps’ promotion winning squad last season whilst on loan from Derry – added a third following a cross by Dean Jarvis.
Harps were struggling to test Gerard Doherty in the Derry goal seriously and although the contested appeared to be petering out, Derry could still smell blood and struck twice in the final six minutes.
Firstly, Austrian Schubert got away into space from a Ward pass and his shot was too strong for Brush to keep out.
Harps were stunned at that stage and Derry certainly kept the best for last. Ward, with three minutes left, got in and showed coolness to dink over Brush to send the away support into raptures.
Finn Harps: Richard Brush; Keith Cowan, Packie Mailey, Thomas McMonagle (Dave Scully 57); Ethan Boyle, Josh Mailey (Raymond Foy 62), Barry Molloy, Tony McNamee (Adam Hanlon 57), Ciaran Coll; Sean Houston; Ryan Curran.
Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Conor McDermott, Niclas Vemmelund, Ryan McBride, Jarvis; Lukas Schubert, Aaron McEneff, Conor McCormack (Harry Monaghan 83), Barry McNamee (Keith Ward 77); Nathan Boyle (Joshua Daniels 70), Rory Patterson.
Referee: Paul McLaughlin.
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