Sadou Diallo red card leads to night of frustration for Derry City

Derry City 0

Shelbourne 0

Derry City still need one point from their final two league games to secure European football next season after a night of frustration at the Brandywell. 

A first half red card to Sadou Diallo ultimately decided this game, with the hosts unable to register a shot on goal throughout as Shelbourne easily came away with a point. 

In Ruaidhri Higgins’ 100th league game in charge, the Candystripes needed a win to secure Europe for the third successive season, but the dynamic of the game changed completely after just 24 minutes when Diallo was red-carded for a late tackle on Shane Farrell.

It was the third time in five games that a City player had seen red, but by far the earliest of the three, with City having to play close to 70 minutes afterwards a man short.

Shelbourne tried their best to make the most of their man advantage in the aftermath, but the best they could muster for the reminder of a poor first half was a half-hearted effort from Jack Moylan which was wide of goal. The closest Derry came in the first half was a wayward cross which almost caught Conor Kearns off guard, but the ball floated just past the upright.

The first save that either goalkeeper had to make came on 49 minutes and it was an ambitious but impressive effort from Paddy Barrett, who curled one towards the corner from 25 yards, forcing Brian Maher to push it behind for a corner.

The visitors created a great chance to take the lead on the hour mark when Farrell’s curling cross found the run of Moylan in behind the Derry defence but the forward miscued completely and failed to even test Maher.

Higgins tried to freshen up his team by sending on captain Patrick McEleney, Jordan McEneff and Ronan Boyce, but still the home side struggled to make any impression on the game, with the red card leaving them completely toothless in attack.  

All the chances were coming Shelbourne’s way, and Maher was called onto action again when Barrett found Griffin with a ball in behind, and his volley had to be parried away by the City goalkeeper. Moments later Moylan bundled the ball into the net from close range, but his celebrations were cut short with referee Hennessey judging that the striker handled the ball in doing so.

Neither team came close to scoring after that, with Shelbourne unsurprisingly having most of the ball, but just lacking the quality to get the goal that would have really given their European hopes a boost.

Teams

Derry City: Maher, Dummigan, S McEleney, McJannet, Doherty; Diallo, O'Reilly, Patching (P McEleney 60’); McMullan (Boyce 80’), Mullen (McEnneff 60’), Duffy (B Kavanagh 89’).

Shelbourne: Kearns, Barrett, Molloy, Griffin (Ledwidge 63’); Wilson (Da Silva Cabral 63’), Farrell, Coyle (Arubi 85’), Lunney, Jarvis (Caffrey 31’); Moylan, Wood.

Referee: Mr Rob Hennessy (Dublin).