Airtricity Premier Division: UCD 0 Derry City 6
From Daire Walsh in Dublin
RORY Patterson had a night to remember in the UCD Bowl last night as his first-half hat-trick set Derry City on their way on to an emphatic victory over an underwhelming UCD.
The Candystripes were hoping to bounce back following their 1-0 opening day reversal to Sligo Rovers and they were handed the perfect start to the contest when UCD netminder Ger Barron’s attempt to dribble a Hugh Douglas back-pass around Patterson was thwarted by the Northern Ireland international, who dispossessed Barron and finished into an empty net from close-range.
This gave the visitors an unexpected lead with just eight minutes gone, and offered them the perfect platform on which to build as a result.
The Students, on the other hand, had looked flat in the early exchanges, and another wayward pass by midfielder James Kavanagh presented Strabane native Patterson with another opportunity on goal 26 minutes in, and he finished low into the bottom corrner of the net from the edge of the box with much
aplomb.
Derry were now in a commanding position before the action had even passed the half-hour mark, and things went from bad to worse for UCD when Barron was shown a yellow-card for handling the ball outside of his area with 10 first-half minutes still to play. To compound matters for Martin Russell’s men, the outstanding Patterson stepped forward to drill the subsequent 25-yard free-kick past the stranded Barron.
The outcome was put beyond any doubt four minutes after the restart when debutant Thomas Crawley cut onto his favoured left-foot out on the right-wing, before dispatching an unstoppable shot past Barron from inside the area.
This further deflated the UCD challenge, and even though the play became quite flat after Crawley’s telling contribution, forceful running down the right flank by Mark Griffin on 67 minutes ended with the Australian star being hauled down by David O’Connor, who was given his marching orders on a second yellow card offence.
Barron did exceptionally well to turn away Griffin’s set-piece effort, but he was helpless to stop substitute Michael Rafter from making it 5-0 on 72 minutes with a magnificent strike from distance, and this was followed by an 86th minute goal by Griffin, as the Candystripes romped towards three
valuable points.