League Report: Derry City 4 - 0 Longford Town

Longford are still without a win since the opening day after a rampant Derry City ran out 4-0 winners at the Brandywell.

Both sides were going into the match on the back of 4-3 and 5-0 defeats to Champions Dundalk. It was Derry City who suffered the worse of the results and they were expected to respond well against a Longford Town side that hadn’t won since the opening day.

However, the game didn’t start as many expected and both sides struggled to cause the other many problems. The Town, who have leaked many goals this season, looked stable at the back and Derry were struggling to create decent opportunities.

After nine minutes of play Longford made their first mistake of the match, and Ronan Curtis had a free ball and free run inside the oppositions box. The winger opted to pass the ball along the Longford area, were Conor McCormack was waiting in a good position.

The midfielder didn’t waste anytime and hit the ball fist time at the goal, but goalkeeper Ryan Coulter was there to make his first real save of the match, and what a save it was.

After scoring three times against Dundalk and still not taking a point away from Oriel Park it would have been a bitter pill to swallow for Tony Cousins and his men, but they were playing well against the Candystripes and were getting their fair share of the play at a ground that hasn’t been kind to them in recent seasons.

Longford continued to exploit the space at the back which wasn’t being covered by the Derry defence, who were without captain Ryan McBride through suspension.

It certainly was not special football from Longford and they continued to play the long ball, which was slicing open the defence and causing Aaron Barry and Niclas Vemmelund real problems.

After 28 minutes it looked like Vemmelund could be in trouble as the Danish defender looked beaten for pace and Lee Duffy was in on goal, but a bad touch by Duffy gave Vemmelund enough time to recover and the chance was squandered.

That’s as good as it got for Tony Cousins side as Derry picked up the pace and they almost got their reward from a free kick, but were once again denied. A quick follow-up ball was beautifully placed into Barry McNamee who volleyed it at goal, but it went just over the bar.

Kenny Shiels' men continued to press the Longford Town defence, which was doing brilliantly to keep their side in the game, clearing the ball off the line on a few occasions.

Derry finally got the breakthrough after 39 minutes. A Nathan Boyle cross was deemed handball by the assistant referee. Robert Harvey gave the penalty and booked Kevin O’Connor for his troubles.

It was Aaron McEneff who opted to take the penalty in front of striker Rory Patterson, but he got the job done and gave his side the lead.

Derry had the momentum now and they continued to attack, a counter attack saw Kevin O’Connor bring down Aaron McEneff and the midfielder was given his marching orders for a second yellow card.

It was unlucky for Longford who were playing really well up until the 40-minute mark.

After half time Derry again struggled to make any significant chances immediately, but once they found their rhythm, they began to the play impressive football.

After 62 minutes a fantastic ball by Conor McCormack left the Longford defence for dead, but Lukas Schubert, who was only on the pitch 3 minutes, picked it up inside the area and tucked it away nicely to double Derry’s lead.

Soon after Schubert again found himself inside the box, but a hard challenge from Pat Flynn, which looked two-footed, gave the referee an incentive to blow his whistle and he gave Derry their second spot kick of the night.

This time there was no question who would take the penalty. Rory Patterson stood up and when the referee blew his whistle the Strabane man hit the ball, but it went well over the bar and denied Derry their third.

Patterson wanted in on the action, but he was growing frustrated and was trying to force a goal. A goal he wanted, but he almost got a wonder goal.

After 72 minutes Coulter was caught off his line and Patterson almost capitalised, but the keeper managed to scramble back to his goal. He must have thought he stopped a goal, but Barry McNamee was there for the rebound and gave City a third goal.

Rampant Derry didn’t stop there. This time Rory Patterson wasn’t denied and after 83 minutes he added Derry’s fourth and ended his five match goal drought.

Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Niclas Vemmelund, Dean Jarvis, Aaron McEneff, Conor McCormack, Barry McNamee (Jordan Allen 83) Rory Patterson, Nathan Boyle (Lukas Schubert 60) Conor McDermott, Ronan Curtis (Joshua Daniels 80) Aaron Barry

Subs not used: Shaun Patton, Rory Holden, Keith Ward, Patrick McClean.

Booked: Dean Jarvis (63).

Longford Town: Ryan Coulter; Conor Powell, Noel Hegarty, Mark Hughes, Kealan Dillion (Phillip Gannon 67) Kevin O’Connor, Lee Duffy (Peter McGylnn 46), Yann Mvita Nkelu, Kaleem Simon, Pat Flynn, Eddie Dsane (David O’Sullivan 76)

Subs not used: Paul Skinner, James Mulhall, Tristan Noack-Hofmann, Rhys Gorman.

Booked: Kevin O’Connor (39), Conor Powell (85).

Sent off: Kevin O’Connor (44).

Referee: Robert Harvey.

Attendance: 600 (estimate).

Extratime.ie Player of The Match: Lukas Schubert (Derry City).

You can see the pictures from the game as taken by John-Paul McGinley here.