Derry City 0 - 2 Shamrock Rovers

Derry City will contest their first ever Setanta Sports Cup final after they thwarted a late Shamrock Rovers fight back at the Brandywell.

The Candystripes needed all their advantage from the first leg as Stephen Kenny attempted to mastermind a turnaround. The first half was a very entertaining affair and only three minutes in Gary Twigg found himself clean through on goal but Gerard Doherty spread himself brilliantly to deny the Scot.

In the 17th minute some fine interplay between Dermot McCaffrey and Patrick McEleney almost led to the latter opening the scoring for Derry but the shot slipped just wide of the post. For the rest of the half Derry seemed to be the hungrier and were pressing a Shamrock Rovers side who seemed to lack urgency.

Declan Devine will certainly have been the happier of the two managers as the whistle went for half time.

As the second half got underway Derry went on the attack and a lovely piece of skill from David McDaid took him deep into the box where he went down but Mr Crangle waved play on.

In the 52nd minute, Daryl Kavanagh floated in a good cross which the Derry defence didn't deal with and Gary Twigg was on hand to slot home for the visitors. At this point as the Dubliners piled on the pressure, Derry seemed to get a little nervy and Gary Twigg almost scored again with a clever snapshot in the 58th minute.

From here on in the game became very open and end to end as Shamrock Rovers poured forward looking for a second and Derry hitting them on the break. In the 86th minute a corner for Shamrock Rovers ended up in an almighty goalmouth scramble which eventually saw Gary Twigg grab his second of the night and set up a grandstand finish, but it was not to be for the champions and a delighted Derry City will progress to face Crusaders in the final at Windsor Park.

Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Dermot McCaffrey, Eddie McCallion, Ryan McBride, Simon Madden; Kevin Deery (Brian McGroary 60), Barry Molloy, Ruadhri Higgins, Stephen McLaughlin (Matthew Crossan 87); Patrick McEleney, David McDaid.
Subs Not Used: Eugene Ferry, Barry McNamee, Michael Barr, Owen Morrison, Ryan Curran.
Bookings: McCallion (45+2).
 

Shamrock Rovers: Oskar Jannson; Graham Gartland, Ken Oman(c) (Colin Hawkins 46), Craig Sives, Stephen Rice (Aaron Greene 67); Billy Dennehy , Chris Turner, Ronan Finn, Gary McCabe (Conor McCormack 75); Daryl Kavanagh, Gary Twigg.
Subs Not Used: Conor Powell, Sean Gannon, Dean Ebbe, Conor Winn.
Bookings: Gartland (45+2), Kavanagh (88).

Referee: Ray Crangle.

Attendance: 1,600 (estimate).
Man of the Match: Gary Twigg (Shamrock Rovers).