St Patrick’s Athletic 0-1 Derry City
DERRY CITY REGISTERED just their fourth away win of the season as they inflicted yet more misery on St Patrick’s Athletic in Inchicore.
All the talk before kick-off was of Chris Forrester’s proposed move to Peterborough United, and with him not included in the Pat’s squad, Sam Verdon made his league debut.
Morgan Langley was also handed his first league start by Liam Buckley, but it was a Derry striker who had the opening effort on goal with 20 minutes on the clock.
And Ciaran O’Connor had all the time in the world to head Stephen Dooley’s cross from the right past a helpless Brendan Clarke in the Pat’s goal.
The home side, coming off the back of two disappointing losses in the league and cup, struggled to create anything of note in a first half that saw Derry hit the post through Patrick McEleney just after the half hour mark.
As always, Barry McNamee made a nuisance of himself just on front of his defence, and both Ryan McBride and Den Jarvis dealt comfortably with everything in their penalty area.
The only blemish on the Derry copybook in the first half was the dismissal of Cillian Morrison on the stroke of half-time for a second bookable offence, but Pat’s failed to make the numerical advantage count after the restart.
McBride was a pillar of strength at the heart of the Derry defence, and despite both James Chambers and Langley having half-chances, Peter Hutton’s men remained resilient.
And even when Pat’s were awarded a penalty with four minutes left to play after McBride fouled Langley, Conan Byrne skied the ball over the bar to end a dismal night for the Inchicore side.
Originally published Friday at 9.51pm
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Clarke, O’Brien, Desmond, Hoare, Bermingham, Bolger (Brennan, 76), Chambers, Verdon (McGrath, 67), Greene (Bayly, 83), Byrne, Langley.
DERRY CITY: Doherty, Jarvis, Barry, McBride, Cornwall, McEneff, McEleney, McNamee, Morrison, Dooley (Curtis, 87), O’Connor (Quigley, 79).;
