City nick vital win
Airtricity Premier Division: UCD 0 Derry City 1
From Daire Walsh at Belfield
MIDFIELDER Stephen McLaughlin was the hero in the Belfield Bowl last night, as his 30th-minute strike gave ten-man Derry City a vital three points.
Derry were hampered by a lengthy injury list, however, as Kevin Deery, Mark Farren, Stewart Greacen and Brian McGroary were all ruled out beforehand, and they were joined on the sideline by Patrick
McEleney and Rory Patterson.
However, with Ryan Curran operating on his own up front in a 4-5-1 formation, the Candystripes were the more prominent of the two sides during the opening exchanges and Ryan McBride was unfortunate to see his header from a ight-wing free-kick drifting just past John Kelly’s goal.
However, despite their early dominance, Derry were finding it difficult to create too many clear-cut openings in the final-third of the pitch, and The Students’ pacy winger, Tyrone McNelis, was causing plenty of problems for the Derry rearguard, although Shane McEleney and Eddie McCallion were on hand to put an end to two of his more promising ventures into opposition territory during the opening 20 minutes.
UCD centre-half Mick Leahy was at full stretch to divert a McDaid shot away and Derry had something of a let-off just before the half-hour mark when a Chris Lyons strike from a dangerous McNelis cross drifted just past the post.
This certainly produced a response from the visitors, who would take the lead just two minutes later when Stephen McLaughlin finished coolly past UCD netminder Kelly from a tight angle after a terrific through ball by Morrison.
This goal was all that separated the teams heading into the second half, and the introduction by Martin
Russell of Samir Belhout for Chris Mulhall did bring a fresh approach to the UCD attack.
In fact, he was involved in UCD’s first real opportunity after the re-start on 56 minutes, when he nodded the ball in the direction of Benson, who had a glorious chance from close-range, but failed to connect properly with the ball and Doherty was able to smother his shot.
Derry would eventually settle back into the contest and they almost doubled their lead on 66 minutes when Simon Madden was found in space on the right and he almost picked out McLaughlin with his telling cross, but Kelly was able to knock it away from danger just in time.
As the game moved into the final quarter, the momentum UCD had built up had died off somewhat, although they were thrown a lifeline with six minutes of normal time remaining when Madden was dismissed on a second yellow card offence.
This did crank up the pressure on the Candystripes heading into the tense closing moments, and Doherty did have to be at his very best to stop Lyons from finding the net deep into stoppage time, but Derry were able to hold out for a precious victory in the end.
MATCH STATS
UCD: Kelly; Ledwith, Leahy, D O’Connor, Nangle; Mulhall (Belhout 46), Corry, Benson, P O’Connor, McNelis (Clarke 75); Lyons.
Subs not used: Douglas, Burke, Boyle, McCabe, McGinley.
Derry City: Doherty; Madden, McCallion, McBride, McCaffrey; Higgins, S McEleney, Morrison (B McNamee 59), McDaid, McLaughlin (Duffy 89); Curran (Barr 86).
Subs not used: T McNamee, Henry, Ferry, Duffy, Barr.
Referee: J McKell (Tipperary).