SSE Airtricity League Premier Division
Derry City 1 Dundalk 1
DERRY City’s title challenge suffered a major blow as lowly Dundalk earned a point at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium on Friday evening.
Once again, the Candystripes’ inconsistentcy was exposed as they missed the chance to leapfrog Shelbourne and go top. Damien Duff’s side are now two points clear at the summit with have two games in hand.
Ruaidhrí Higgins’ men again had a lot of possession in the opening 45 minutes but failed to produce a performance worthy of a side challenging for a league title.
The Candystripes, who started the game some 22 points ahead of lowly Dundalk, never got going in the first half and, in truth, could have been further behind at the break.
City went close on 11 minutes as Mark Connolly’s cross-field pass found Ben Doherty. The left-back’s in-swinging cross found Michael Duffy, but his header into the ground flew over the bar.
The Brandywell was left stunned on 22 minutes as the visitors took a shock lead. Daryl Horgan’s left-wing corner found John Moutney at the near post and he directed a superb header into the corner of the net.
A swift counter-attack on 34 minutes nearly resulted in Dundalk netting a second but City goalkeeper Brian Maher raced off his line to deny Jamie Gullian after the frontman had latched onto Robbie Mahon’s pass down the left hand side of the box.
A teasing Will Patching free-kick from the right found Mark Connolly at the back post, but the centre-back failed to test Dundalk goalkeeper Felix Goddard and side-footed wide.
The visitors should have added a second on 43 minutes as Horgan cut in from the right before feeding the ball across to Robbie Benson. He cleverly stepped over the ball to find Mahon, but the winger blasted over from 10 yards.
Higgins made a double change at the break with Jacob Davenport – getting his first taste of action since signing in June – and Daniel Mullen coming on to replace Daniel Kelly and Adam O’Reilly.
It was Mullen who got Derry back in the game on 64 minutes. Davenport’s clever flick found the striker, whose lovely left-footed strike on the edge of the box nestled into Goddard’s bottom left-hand corner.
City had a good chance to take the points as Mullen got in behind Andy Boyle, but the Dundalk centre-back was saved by his keeper as Goddard raced off his line to deny the striker.
On 86 minutes, Mullen missed another great chance to win the game as he again broke in behind the Dundalk defence. However, his attempted lob over a stranded Goddard landed on top of the net.
Right at the death, Patching’s left-wing free-kick found Pat Hoban at the back post, but his header was easily gathered by Goddard.
Derry City Maher, Dummigan, Connolly, Coll, Doherty (Whelan 82); O’Reilly (Davenport HT), Patching, McMullan; Kelly (Mullen HT) , Hoban, Duffy
Dundalk Goddard, Pike, Boyle, Cann, Keogh (Oostenbrink 70); Mountney, Benson (McGill HT), Dervin, Horgan (Garbett 81), Gullan (Kenny 81), Mahon (O’Kane 63)
Referee Robert Harvey (Dublin)
