Derry City 1 - 1 Sligo Rovers

Paul Cook was able to name an unchanged side from the team that beat basement club Cobh Ramblers 4-0 last Saturday and he’ll be pleased enough with the result achieved on a bitter cold night against North West rivals Derry City. A draw was probably a fair enough result for the football on display, the third stalemate of the season between these teams.

Stephen Kenny had made nine changes from Tuesday’s game, with only Gareth McGlynn and Mark McCrystal retaining their places. Ciaran Martyn made a welcome return to the centre of midfield after a long injury and Sean Hargan made a rare appearance. Billy Dennehey also made his first start.

Derry started the livelier team enjoying much of the early possession, particularly on the left wing where Gareth McGlynn showed little ill effect of the 120 minutes played mid-week. The main threat though came from Tommy Stewart who worked hard all night and deserved a goal for his efforts, even if it eventually came from a questionable penalty midway through the second half.

The much changed Derry side squandered a number of chances and half chances in the opening half hour and Conor O’Grady was only too happy to make them pay for their wasteful carelessness. Seamus Coleman caught the Derry defence napping, his low cross found O’Grady in space between the centre backs and he coolly chipped the ball home over an advancing Darren Quigley.

Sligo were given a boost of confidence by the goal and ventured on in an attempt to find a second. Boco had been working tirelessly until then chasing, holding up and passing and must have been pleased to see some support start to appear. However, Derry kept pushing and almost took advantage of some of the space opening in Sligo’s rearguard. Martyn perhaps came closest to levelling the tie in the 40th minute but he was unable to beat the quick hands of Gavin Peers with goalkeeper Richard Brush lying prone on the ground. It was a save any goalkeeper would be proud of and Sligo held on to go in to the interval one up.

The second half produced little in the way of excitement. Sligo dropped noticeably deeper which invited Derry forward more and more often but left few real openings for a shot on goal. Billy Dennehey did find the back of the net but the goal was chalked off by the referee without much of an explanation. It was fortuitous, for the home side then, that on 65 minutes, Brian Cash was deemed to have hauled Martyn to the ground inside the area. Hancock had no hesitation pointing to the spot and Stewart made no mistake with the resulting penalty finishing high into the top left corner. Perhaps this penalty would make up for the more blantant first half incident the officials had inexplicably missed.

Both sides had a chance to steal the tie, Stewart firing wide and Boco firing into Quigleys legs when clean through, but neither side could be too displeased with an even share of the spoils. Sligo gave a good account of themselves in their clashes with Derry this year and perhaps may have deserved to have taken home more than just the three points from the three games. Derry however could be excused for having their minds on other things after a make or break week in their pursuit of treble cup glory.

Derry City: Darren Quigley; Eddie McCallion, Mark McCrystal, Sean Hargan, Aaron Callaghan (Niall McGinn 59); Gareth McGlynn, Ruaidhri Higgins, Ciaran Martyn, Billy Dennehy (Sammy Morrow 74); Mark Farren (Kevin McHugh 81), Thomas Stewart.
Subs not used: Ger Doherty, Kevin Deery.

Sligo Rovers: Richard Brush; Seamus Coleman, Mauro Almeida (Matthew Judge 58), Gavin Peers, Danny Ventre; Brian Cash (Paul McTiernan 84), Conor O'Grady, Richie Ryan, Sean Doherty; Romauld Boco, Raffaele Cretaro.
Subs not used: Pat Jennings, Steven Feeney, David McDaid.

Referee: Damien Hancock.

Attendance: 2,300 (estimate)