League Report: Derry City 3 - 2 Athlone Town

Derry City took a nervy though ultimately deserved victory against a game Athlone Town at the Brandywell on Friday evening.

In an open and entertaining game it was the home side who created more of the chances and prevailed with goals from Enda Curran, Rory Patterson and a magnificent strike from man of the match Michael Duffy.

Athlone, however, also deserve great credit for their never say die attitude and can take great heart going forward from this display.

The game started at a fairly slow tempo but didn't take long to liven up. In fact, in the 8th minute, Athlone thought they had taken the lead when Philip Gorman had the ball in the net but the offside flag had gone up.

Two minutes later the home side should have been one up when a long ball found Enda Curran in the box and he poked the ball round Sexton only for Rory Patterson to blast wide when faced with an open goal.

Fifteen minutes in and it was the visitors who got their noses in front. An aimless ball was played up the line and Dean Jarvis failed in his attempt to shepherd it out for a goal kick. Robbed of the ball by Mark Hughes, his cross let the incoming James O'Brien side foot it past Doherty in the Derry goal.

This seemed to sting the home team into action and a Patterson shot was well saved before Derry equalised rather fortuitously in the 23rd minute. A good move found Michael Duffy on the left and his cross seemed to be misheaded by Curran. This seemed to fool the goalkeeper and the ball trickled past him to even the game up.

Seven minutes later Derry were in the lead and it was all down to a superb bit of vision from Patrick McEleney. He received the ball in the centre circle and sent a stunning pass through the middle finding Patterson who dragged the ball past Sexton before turning and thumping it into the bottom corner.

The rest of the half saw a couple of half chances for both teams but Derry were just about worth their lead at the break.

The start of the second half was quite scrappy with a Michael Duffy run and shot and a chipped free kick from John Paul McGovern the only action of note. That all changed in the 60th minute with a superb Michael Duffy effort extending the Foylesiders advantage to two.

Enda Curran had the ball out wide and cut it back to Duffy. The young winger then showed the ball to two defenders before bending an unstoppable shot in at Sextons near post.

In the 74th minute Shane McEleney fouled Graham Rusk on the edge of the area earning himself a booking. Athlone substitute Jason Marks stepped up to bend a beautiful free kick into the top corner past a despairing Doherty to cut the deficit to one. A truly top drawer free kick.

It was real end to end stuff at that point with Athlone giving as good as they were getting. The game should have been put to bed in the 89th minute with another touch of brilliance from the mercurial Patrick McEleney. Again receiving the ball centrally he beat two men before unleashing a powerful bending shot from all of 30 yards which came crashing off the post with Sexton beaten all ends up.

Roddy Collins will be relieved and pleased in equal measure as his side showed a lot more attacking intent than in recent games whilst Mick Cooke, although undoubtedly disappointed to still be pointless, will have seen plenty to work with in the coming weeks.

Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Roddy Collins, Cliff Byrne (c), Shane McEleney, Dean Jarvis; Michael Duffy, Patrick McEleney, Danny Ventre, Mark Stewart, John Paul McGovern (Mark Stewart 68); Enda Curran , Rory Patterson.
Subs not used: Ciaran Gallagher (gk), Mark Timlin, Raymond Foy, Ryan Curran, Cormac Burke, Aaron Barry.

Booked: Shane McEleney (74), Danny Ventre (82).

Athlone Town: Craig Sexton; Stephen Quigley, Conor McMahon, Alan Byrne (c), Sean Byrne; James O'Brien (Barry Clancy 60), Mark Hughes, Kealan Dillon (Ian Sweeney 64), Sean Brennan (Jason Marks 64); Graham Rusk, Philip Gorman.
Subs not used: Paul Skinner (gk), Declan Brennan.

Booked: Alan Byrne (78), Mark Hughes (90+1).

Referee: Rob Harvey.

Attendance: 1,100 (estimate).

ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Michael Duffy (Derry City).