Derry City 0 - 0 Sligo Rovers

The old cliché “a game of two halves” would perfectly sum up tonight's game at the Brandywell, with Derry dominating the first half and Sligo having much the better of the second period, largely due to the introduction of former Cameroon international Joseph Ndo.

The game was a contrast between Sligo’s neat pass and move tactics against Derry’s more direct approach and it was the home side who had the better of the early exchanges. In the 13th minute Kevin Deery picked the ball up in his own half and picked out Eamon Zayed who had made a terrific run in behind the Sligo defence, but instead of shooting, he checked back giving the Rovers defence time to snuff out the danger.

As the half wore on Sligo were coming into it a little more and a rash Shane McEleney challenge on John Russell brought the first card out of referee Tom Connolly’s back pocket. Derry finished the half stronger though and a fine run and cross across the goal had the crowd wondering how Eamon Zayed didn’t manage to get the touch required to open the scoring.

At the beginning of the second half Kevin Deery and Ruadhri Higgins contrived to give the ball away in the middle of the park allowing Matthew Blinkhorn an opportunity to run at goal but he crashed the ball into the side netting. Up to this point you would have said that Derry had probably edged the game so far, but in the 53rd minute that was all to change with the introduction of veteran midfielder Joseph Ndo.

Straight away, Ndo struck a teasing free kick on to the head of Jason McGuinness, who headed just over. A minute later he put through Eoin Doyle who was denied by a great Gerard Doherty save. Sligo now had the game by the scruff of the neck with Ndo at the heart of everything.

The rest of the game saw the Bit o’ Red control most of the action although Gareth McGlynn should have done better when clean through on a rare Derry attack, blasting over from six yards. As Sligo pressed more and more, both Greacen and McCallion went into the notebook for mistimed tackles, and at the very end there was a goal line melee where it looked much easier for Doyle to score but the ball just crept past Doherty’s post much to the home fans relief.

All in all a draw was probably a fair result given that each side had dominated a half apiece, although Sligo did finish much the stronger side and probably felt they could have nicked all three points at the end.

Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Daniel Lafferty, Shane McEleney, Stewart Greacen Eddie McCallion; James McClean, Kevin Deery (c), Ruaidhri Higgins, Gareth McGlynn; Patrick McEleney (David McDaid 75), Eamon Zayed (Stephen McLaughlin 84).
Subs not used: Eugene Ferry, Ryan McBride, Emmet Friars, Ruari Harkin, James Henry.
Bookings: Shane McEleney (34),  Eddie McCallion (74), Stewart Greacen (82).

Sligo Rovers: Brendan Clarke; Gavin Peers, Jason McGuinness, Alan Keane, Aaron Greene; Rafael Cretaro, John Russell (Joseph Ndo 53), Richie Ryan(c), Danny Ventre (Alan Kirby 65); Matthew Blinkhorn (Daryl Horgan 89), Eoin Doyle.
Subs not used: Mark McGoldrick, John Dillon, Ciaran Kelly, Derek Foran.
Bookings: Eoin Doyle (38).

Referee: Tom Connolly.
Attendance: 2,153
extratime.ie Man of the Match: Joseph Ndo. He changed the game.