It's a night to forget as Derry City demolished by St. Patrick's Athletic

St. Patrick’s Athletic 4

Derry City 1

Derry City were dominated by an in-form St. Patrick’s Athletic at Inchicore.  

It is now just one point in the last three games for Ruaidhri Higgins’ team, whose team have now fallen four points behind champions Shamrock Rovers at the top of the Premier Division.  For St. Pat's however, it is a sixth win in seven games as they go joint with Derry City on 35 points. 

Centre-half John McGrath opened the scoring late in the first half when was allowed to travel forward with the ball unchallenged. The defender just kept going and was invited to shoot and he did just that, and Maher was unable to keep out his effort from 25 yards, the ball somehow squeezing through his hands and into the top corner of the net.

Derry City were so fortunate that they didn’t fall 2-0 behind minutes later. Shane McEleney, Derry’s last man, lost possession to Conor Carty and the defender hauled the Pat’s player back. Fortunately for McEleney, referee Neil Doyle played advantage, allowing Eoin Doyle to race through on goal, and fortunately for McEleney, he was saved by his goalkeeper, who blocked the striker’s shot from close range.

Derry City lost both Michael Duffy and Patrick McEleney to injury, and that did not help matters on the pitch which continued to go from bad to worse in the second half.

Route one simplicity led to the second goal for the home side on 62 minutes as McGrath launched a ball upfield and Doyle sped away from Connolly, bore down on goal and placed the ball beyond Maher into the corner of the net.

That was the first of three goals in five incredible minutes.

Derry City hit straight back when McEneff’s hooked shot was blocked, but it fell into the path of Cian Kavanagh who fired in from close range to give the visitors some hope.

But this was a night when everything which could go wrong for City did go wrong. Cameron Dummigan, on just his fourth start this season, went off injured, and his replacement Brandon Kavanagh, had barely taken the field when St. Pat’s scored again. Again, it was so simple for the home side, with Chris Forrester glancing a header home from a corner to make it 3-1.

Derry, usually so solid at the back, capitulated again and substitute Mark Doyle ran through on 77 minutes to score his side’s fourth goal of the night.

Teams

ST. PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Lynass, Lewis, Breslin, Lennon, Forrester (Brockbank 82’), McCormack (Doyle 64’), Carty (Longergan 82’), Curtis, Murphy (McClelland 75’), McGrath, Doyle (Timmermans 64’).

DERRY CITY: Maher, Boyce, Connolly, S McEleney (McJannet 53’), Doherty, Diallo (O’Reilly 53’), Dummigan (B Kavanagh 65’), P McEleney (McEneff 53’), Duffy (O’Neill 45’), Graydon, C Kavanagh.

REFEREE: Neil Doyle.