More misery for Derry City as they fall to defeat at St. Patrick's Athletic

St. Patrick’s Athletic 2

Derry City 0

It was a tale of two penalties and a red card at Richmond Park, as Derry City fell to their third defeat in four league games this season.

All of the big decisions went against the Candystripes, with the league’s top scorer Aidan Keena scoring twice from the spot and City midfielder Carl Winchester sent off very early in the second half.

Derry went to Dublin hoping to respond to their defeat to Waterford at the Brandywell on Friday night, but they were slow to get going and conceded early again.

The opening goal came early, with referee Gavin Colfer’s decision a soft one as he pointed to the spot after Mason Melia went down under a challenge from Ben Doherty. After City's protests were waved away, in-form striker Keena stepped up and drilled the resulting penalty low into Brian Maher's bottom right-hand corner for his fourth goal of the season.

Derry could well have fallen two goals behind midway through the first half when they gave away possession too easily, and when Chris Forrester collected the ball in midfield, he immediately picked out Keena in space 25 yards from goal. The goal score had one thought in mind and raced forward before aiming for the bottom corner and only a brilliant save from Brian Maher denied the striker a second goal.

Derry offered very little as an attacking force in the first half, and it was Pat’s who showed more ambition, another chance coming and going when Carl Sjoberg rolled the ball across the area and Zachary Elbouzedi raced onto it, but couldn’t get his finish right and shot high over the bar.

The chances of Derry getting back into the game were hampered by a straight red card just two minutes into the second half. Midfielder Carl Winchester went into a tackle with his foot up on Melia and caught the striker high, and referee Colfer immediately reached for his back pocket.

There were some signs of life from the visitors around the hour mark when the Pats’ defence stood off Adam O’Reilly and let him have a shot at goal, and that decision almost cost them as the ball bobbled past a worried Joseph Anang in goal and just past the post.

The game was finished on 67 minutes when Colfer awarded a second penalty, this time when O’Reilly challenged Keena following a clever pass from Chris Forrester. The striker quickly stepped up to face Maher again, and this time the Derry City goalkeeper didn’t even move as the striker rolled in his fifth goal of the campaign.

The Candystripes are back at home against Galway United this coming Friday, desperate for a positive result to lift the low mood amongst the fans at present.

Teams

St Patrick's Athletic: Anang, Sjoberg, Redmond, Grivosti, Breslin; Elbouzedi (Kazeem 87’), Forrester, McClelland, Mulraney (Power 70’); Melia (Carty, Keena (Kavanagh 78’).

Derry City: Maher, O'Reilly, Connolly, Holt, Doherty; Winchester, Diallo, Whyte (Todd 56’); McMullan (Todd 56’), Hoban (Patton 65’), Duffy (Mullen 73’).

Referee: Gavin Colfer (Dublin).