Derry City 0 Drogheda United 1
Drogheda United continued to find the Brandywell a happy hunting ground, having put Derry City to the sword for a second consecutive season after what proved an exciting yet controversial game.
The controversy, which commenced in the 25th minute, saw Irish League referee, Arnold Hunter, produce a straight red card to dismiss Drogheda centre back, Emmanuel Adegboyega, following his challenge on Jamie McGonigle.
That decision had the big crowd on their toes, however, on the field of play, Derry failed to take advantage.
Before the incident, Derry’s Will Patching threatened to break the deadlock with two efforts, goalkeeper Colin McCabe making a vital save, before flashing his second shot high over the crossbar.
From that point the home side exerted sustained pressure on Drogheda but failed to breach the visiting defence. In fact, following the break it was Drogheda who started on the front foot as Derry clearly struggled despite their numerical advantage.
Refusing to be intimidated the Louth side continued to play on the front foot and that attitude reaped a handsome dividend. Firstly, Derry captain, Cameron McJannet, was shown a second yellow card for a tackle on Frederick Dreaper, the defender having been cautioned in the first half and the sides were level at 10 players apiece.
The home side battled and McGonigle had forced the ball home only to have the goal disallowed for offside. But it got worse for the home team when Drogheda stunned the Brandywell venue with a goal in the 78th minute following a free-kick from Dayle Rooney.
The ball was floated to the back post and when it was deflected into the path of Elicha Ahul, the loanee from Lincoln City drove the loose ball home much to the delight of the home dugout.
Derry continued to battle and while Shane McEleney had the ball in the net following a header, the strike was also disallowed as the ball had gone out of play following the corner kick. Derry’s first defeat of the season, next up Bohs are due to visit Foyleside on Monday, it should prove to be another exciting fixture.
Derry City: Maher; Coll, S. McEleney, McJannet, Doherty; Diallo (O’Reilly, 57) Patching; O’Neill, McEneff), Graydon (Patching, 75); McGonigle.
Drogheda: McCabe; Alhuij, Adegboyega, Jones; Deegan, Heeney; Markey, Rooney, Grimes; Draper.
Referee: A Hunter
Dundalk 1 Sligo Rovers 2
Substitute Stefan Radosavljevic struck an 89th minute winner at Oriel Park as Sligo Rovers leapfrogged Dundalk into third place.
The Faroe Islands international earned a deserved victory for John Russell’s side when he wove his way into the box to slot past Nathan Shepperd for his first goal for the club since his arrival from HB Tórshavn.
Stephen O’Donnell’s side had gone close to taking the lead early on through John Martin and Ryan O’Kane but found themselves behind on 16 minutes when Will Fitzgerald found space on the left to fizz a low cross into the box which Max Mata was on hand to turn in for his sixth goal of the season.
Dundalk would get back on level terms a minute before the break though with Rayhann Tulloch winning his side a penalty after being adjudged to have been fouled by John Mahon. The on-loan West Brom player then stepped up to take the spot kick but despite being denied by Luke McNicholas, he was on hand to finish off the rebound.
There were few clear cut chances in the second half but the winner would arrive a minute from time as Radosavljevic picked up a loose pass and wove his way into the box to fire home.
Dundalk: Shepperd; Davies, Muller, Boyle, Leahy; Yli-Kokko (Sloggett 60), Lewis; Tulloch (McCourt 86), Malley, O’Kane (Kelly 61); Martin.
Sligo Rovers: McNicholas; Liivak, Mahon, Pijnaker, Hutchinson; Browning Lagerfeldt, Morahan (Bolger 77); Hartmann 7 (Barlow 77), Vastsuk (Radosavljevic 68), Fitzgerald; Mata.
Referee: Damien MacGraith
St Patrick’s Athletic 4 Cork City 0
St Patrick’s Athletic made it back-to-back wins in the league for the first time this season with a convincing victory over Cork City at Richmond Park. It was a comfortable win for the hosts whose attention now switches to their meeting with Drogheda United on Monday evening.
Jake Mulraney gave Pats the lead when he was on hand to guide Eoin Doyle’s cross into the City net. It was Mulraney’s third goal in as many games.
City’s best chance of the first half fell to Ruairí Keating after he was quickest to latch on to a direct ball behind the Pats defence. However, Keating was unable to add to his five-goals this season with his looping effort coming back off the crossbar.
Pats doubled their advantage through Jason McClelland when his strike from distance had too much power on it for Jimmy Corcoran to prevent it from hitting the net.
Jamie Lennon got his side’s third when he got on the end of Mulraney’s cross to steer the ball beyond Corcoran, although it could be debated that it was an own-goal from Kevin Custovic.
Substitute Mark Doyle made the victory even more convincing when he scored late on with a calm finish.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Lynness; Curtis, McGrath, Redmond, Breslin; Lennon (Carty, 85), Forrester (Timmermans, 79), Kredida; McClelland (M Doyle 79), E Doyle (Lonergan, 71), Mulraney (Murphy, 79).
CORK CITY: Corcoran; Honohan, Gilchrist, Hakkinen, Custovic; Bargary (O’Brien-Whitmarsh, 76), Bolger, Winbo (Varian, 76), Krezic (Murphy, 57); Crowley, Keating.
Referee: R Hennessy
UCD 0 Shelbourne 0
A fine save from Kian Moore, some poor finishing and the width of a post denied Shelbourne as they had to settle for a frustrating point at the UCD Bowl.
Goals were always likely to be at a premium as these sides have now managed just eight strikes between them in their 16 matches combined this season.
With Cork City losing in Inchicore, bottom of the table UCD will be content enough as the result sees them edge to within four points of the Leesiders. Shelbourne drop to eighth place on nine points.
Though the visitors started brightly, with Kian Leavy working an early chance and then having a penalty claim denied, the game didn’t spark to life until the 35th minute.
UCD’s Moore was the first goalkeeper to see action, positioning himself well to bat away Jack Moylan’s drive after the Shelbourne striker had skilfully skipped inside Adam Wells.
Almost immediately, Shelbourne had a let-off at the other end. A long ball bounced through for Danu Kinsella-Bishop who nipped in behind Reds skipper Luke Byrne only to lob his effort over the top.
Shelbourne had a bit more about them from the resumption and might have been ahead four minutes in.
Leavy’s arced ball into the area wasn’t cleared. Moylan showed clever feet to get turned and was livid with himself as he volleyed wide.
The frame of their goal then rescued UCD on 54 minutes as Tyreke Wilson’s free kick came back off a post after JJ Lunney had been fouled by Mark Dignam.
UCD: Moore; Barr, Keaney, Wells, Dempsey; Behan, Higgins, Dignam, Nolan (Norris, 79); Keane; Kinsella-Bishop (Doyle, 74).
Shelbourne: Kearns; Molloy (Quinn, 68), Byrne, Ledwidge; Farrell (Hakiki, 78), Lunney (Coyle, 68), Caffrey, T. Wilson (JR Wilson, 61); Leavy, Smith (Robinson, 61), Moylan.
Referee: Eoghan O’Shea
