Derry City dig deep to defeat 10-man Galway United

Galway United 2

Derry City 3

Danny Mullen, Robbie Benson and Gavin Whyte all scored as Derry City picked up their first win at Galway United since 2015. 

Tiernan Lynch was red-carded for the second time this season, but on the pitch it was the home side who were reduced to 10 men when Cian Byrne was dismissed early in the second half moments after Benson had scored his first goal for the club. 

Derry City struck first on 17 minutes. The home side thought they had handled the danger when they cleared the first corner of the game, but the ball came to Michael Duffy whose curling effort from 20 yards caused great discomfort to goalkeeper Evan Watts, who could only parry it right into the path of Danny Mullen, who headed in the rebound from close range for his first goal of the season.

Galway thought they had an equaliser just over 10 minutes before half-time when Slevin’s cross was met by a powerful header from captain Greg Cunningham, but he was denied by a brilliant one-handed save by Brian Maher, who dived to his left to get a strong hand on the ball.

The home side had their equaliser just three minutes before the break however when the City defence couldn't handle another ball forward from Slevin, and Hickey took full advantage, racing in to volley it past Maher from close range.

The opening minutes of the second half proved disastrous for Galway however as they conceded a second goal before being reduced to ten men in the space of just four minutes. Watts was picking the ball out of his net within two minutes of the restart when Dom Thomas picked out Robbie Benson 20 yards from goal and the former Dundalk man brilliantly swept a curling effort directly past the Galway goalkeeper to make it 2-1.

Galway were still reeling from that when they were reduced to 10 men, referee Declan Toland, who had dismissed Derry City manager Tiernan Lynch at half-time, showing a second yellow to Byrne following a challenge on Mullen.  

In deteriorating conditions, Galway threw everything at Derry late on, but substitute David Hurley’s snapshot from the edge of the area flew wide of Brian Maher’s goal.

The game was ended five minutes into added time, when Derry substitute Paul McMullan led a three-on-one counter attack, and he played in Whyte who rolled the ball into the corner to seal three very valuable points for the Candystripes.

Galway did grab a late consolation through Vincent Bordan, but it was the last action of the game and counted for little.

Galway United: E Watts, J Esua, C Byrne, R Slevin (S Kerrigan 85’), K Brouder, G Cunningham, P Hickey, V Borden, R Burns (D Hurley 75’), J Keohane (C Tollett 85’), M Dyer (S Walsh 75’).

Derry City: B Maher, R Boyce (H Cann 76’), M Connolly, S Todd, K Holt, R Benson, D Thomas (P McMullan 85’), G Whyte, C Winchester, M Duffy, D Mullen (S Patton 68’).

Referee: Declan Toland.