SSE Airtricity League Premier Division
Derry City 1 Shamrock Rovers 1
A stoppage-time penalty from Pat Hoban earned Derry City a hard-fought point against champions Shamrock Rovers at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
The Hoops, who led thanks to Dylan Watts’ first-half goal, will be disappointed with the result and especially referee Damien MacGraith’s decision to award the crucial penalty.
City skipper Patrick McEleney seemed to go down inside the box after something of a soft touch from Rovers’ Josh Honohan and the Mayo official pointed to the spot. Hoban made no mistake from 12 yards.
Both sides played some neat and tidy football in the opening quarter, but just like two heavyweight boxers were just feeling each other out in the early stages.
The first real effort came on 24 minutes as Ciaran Coll’s long-range low drive was saved at the second attempt by a diving Leon Pohls.
Rovers broke the deadlock two minutes later as Johnny Kenny broke clear down the left before finding Dylan Watts just inside the box and the midfielder coolly slotted the ball into Brian Maher’s bottom left-hand corner.
Right on half-time, City went close to levelling things as Ronan Boyce found Michael Duffy on the left-hand side of the box, but from a tight angle, his angled shot, which had Pohls worried, flashed just wide.
City started the second half on the front foot and Danny Mullen went close early on but his 20-yard snap-shot was straight at Pohls, who gathered easily.
Derry thought they had equalised on 61 minutes as Paul McMullan’s cross found Mark Connolly, who made no mistake heading home from close range, but his celebrations were rightfully cut short by referee MacGraith, as the City centre-back had pushed Roberto Lopes in the build-up to the goal.
Soon after, Derry had strong claims for a penalty as Lee Grace’s trailing arm seemed to block Mullen’s left-wing cross, but referee Damien MacGraith waved away the Candystripes’ protests.
Moments later, Ruaidhri Higgins made a double change with skipper Patrick McEleney and leading marksman Pat Hoban coming off the bench to replace McMullan and Sadou Diallo.
Derry were awarded that controversial penalty on 90 minutes and the rescued point could prove crucial as Shelbourne’s defeat to Galway means the gap at the top is down to three points with six games remaining.
