DERRY City went top of the Premier Division table with their fourth successive win in the Premier Division at Whitehall on Saturday night and in so doing inflicted further frustration on second from bottom Home Farm/Everton.
Two first half goals from strikers Gary Beckett and Liam Coyle was more than enough to give Felix Healy's side an utterly convincing win. The problems thus mount for Home Farm whose manager Dermot Keely tacitly admitted afterwards that the gamble of playing ageing Scots Steve Archibald and Alan Sneddon backfired badly.
Archibald, now 40, was substituted at half time and 38 year old Sneddon, who "did all right" in the eyes of Keely, was at fault for Derry's second goal. Suffice to say that neither is likely to don a Home Farm/Everton shirt again.
"Maybe now it's time for me to sit down and pick the best 11 we've got here, pick a system and stick with it," said Keely afterwards.
"After that, if we're going to go down, then fine. Perhaps in an all out effort to improve things we may have made things worse.
"The idea of bringing in the likes of Archibald and Sneddon is that they are experienced, will talk and that they should be able to rally the team round. But it just doesn't happen. They don't look demonstrably better than anything we already have at the club."
Beckett shot Derry in front after 27 minutes when Home Farm defender Ray Duffy could only flick on a long free kick taken by Derry goalkeeper Tony O'Dowd, playing Beckett through to calmly finish.
A mistake by Sneddon then gifted Derry their second as Coyle calmly slotted the ball past Josh Moran for a simple looking goal.
