UCD - 1 Derry City - 2: Having guided Bohemians to last year's Eircom League Cup final, only to be dismissed before the match was played, Stephen Kenny tasted overdue success in the competition last night at Belfield where his Derry side won the first trophy of what could yet be a very special season for the Candystripes.

A strike from Alan Murphy and an own goal from Patrick McWalter were enough to send the silverware north on a night when the home side once again underlined their ability to compete at the game's highest level here. But City, who extended their unbeaten run to 20 games with this win, highlighted their capacity to do quite a bit more than that.

If Kenny had to wait for the medal, nobody in the home side's camp camp can have had much sympathy. Half the home team hadn't been born when UCD last lifted a piece of silverware more significant than the Collingwood Cup, and their inexperience, on what was certainly as big a night as Belfield has seen down the years, looked a likely handicap.

Under Pete Mahon, though, the team's youngsters have been learning fast these past few months and never looked overawed by a Derry side that came to Dublin looking to complete the first leg of a possible treble.

The students actually made the better start to things with a couple of Stephen Hurley frees almost allowing them to capitalise on early uncertainty in the City defence. On both occasions the required finish eluded them, but in every other department they were doing well. Their opponents were deprived of time or space on the ball while a couple of UCD players looked determined to show that they could assert themselves physically too.

If Kenny's side took longer to settle, however, they didn't take long to make their breakthrough once they did. Twice before the goal they had troubled the students on the break, but a quarter of an hour in they enjoyed their first serious bout of pressure.

An initial attack ended with the ball being scrambled away after half-hearted appeals for a handball inside the area, but when City started to work the ball back in from the left, Gary Dicker did well to win possession from Killian Brennan only to play the ball into the path of Murphy. The former Galway striker seized the opportunity, firing low and wide of Darren Quigley towards the bottom left corner.

For all the spirit they showed early on, coming from behind against the northerners seemed a tall order for the Dubliners. But they were helped by the inability of their opponents to close things down with any conviction around their own area.

David Forde looked particularly shaky and briefly looked to have gifted the locals a goal when he allowed a rather tamely lofted Hurley free to slip through his hands. On that occasion he recovered quickly enough to gather before the ball crossed the line, but there was rarely a sense that he was in complete control.

When UCD attempted to play the ball high towards their strikers, Anto Murphy and Conan Byrne, they were repeatedly frustrated by City's centre halves with Clive Delaney, in particular, proving hard to get by. Running at the pair looked potentially more rewarding, though, and when Delaney was booked for a trip on Byrne 25 yards out, the resulting free, though poor itself, was so badly dealt with that Dicker might have scored if only he had reacted more quickly.

Four minutes later the equaliser came as a result of another error. Delaney this time knocked the ball square when his goalkeeper was looking for it a few yards further back and City's man of the match, Peter Hutton, also looked a better option. Byrne was nearest, though, and he pounced to beat Forde who was caught off balance by the striker's low, bobbling shot into the bottom corner.

Had they managed to get in for the turnaround level Mahon's men would have had considerable cause for satisfaction. Seconds before the interval, though, they suffered a second setback when a neat piece of attacking play, again involving Brennan, ended with McWalter stretching to take the ball off Mark Farren's foot only to push the ball past his goalkeeper.

To their credit they spent every minute of the second period battling to get back on terms again but the task simply proved beyond them. For close to half an hour they just about shaded the contest, but City were now settled at the back where, aside from a frantic, last-minute clearance by Gareth McGlynn, they generally coped well enough.

UCD: Quigley; Mahon, Shorthall, McDonnell, O'Donnell; Gannon (Dupuy, 89 mins), Hurley, Dicker, McWalter (Kenna, 82 mins); C Byrne, Anto Murphy (Martin, 60 mins).

DERRY CITY: Forde; Deery, Delaney, Hutton, Hargan; McGlynn, Murphy (McCourt, 82 mins), Molloy, K Brennan; Beckett, Farren (Martyn, 72 mins).

Referee: D Hancock (Dublin).