Derry City 4 - 0 Shelbourne

A rampant Derry City brushed off the challenge of Shelbourne on Friday night, defeating the Dubliners by four goals to nil.

The first half was quite an evenly contested affair, and as early as the 4th minute, the industrious Michael Rafter tested Niall Burdon with a thumping effort which the Shelbourne netminder parried to safety.

A midfield battle ensued and it wasn't until the 22nd minute when Dean Kelly crossed the ball in and the ball struck Shane McEleney on the hand that the game sprang to life. Neither the referee or the linesman seemed to think it was a penalty however.

In the 25th minute another controversial decision was made when Michael Rafter was tripped seemingly inside the box but was only given a free kick on the edge of the area which Rory Patterson blasted just over. In the 30th minute Philly Hughes was through on goal when he was pulled back by Shane McEleney who was extremely fortunate only to receive a yellow card.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 33rd minute after some good interplay from the home side. Barry McNamee raced up the wing and found the impressive Sean Houston in the box. Houston turned his man and fed Rory Patterson who bent a beautiful finish into the corner past a despairing Burdon.

Derry should have doubled their lead in the 43rd minute when McNamee found Patterson who in turn cut back the ball to Rafter who teed up Ruaidhri Higgins for a certain goal but somehow the midfielder blasted over from six yards. 

The second half was a much more one sided affair and in the 49th minute Sean Houston brilliantly beat two defenders but couldn't get quite enough loft on his attempted chip. Both Rafter and Houston saw looping headers just clear the bar and land on the netting. In the 56th minute Patterson found himself clean through but was tackled superbly with Rafter sliding the loose ball wide.

Shelbourne almost snatched an unlikely equaliser in the 59th minute when a clipped cross found an unmarked Crowley but his header was straight at Gerard Doherty. The deciding moment in the game came in the 63rd minute when Patterson sprung the offside trap and sent a wicked cross across the face of goal which Paul Crowley could only turn into his own net giving Burdon no chance.

Patterson was denied a penalty in the 66th minute when he was clearly tripped but the referee thought otherwise. Substitutions from both sides slowed the tempo of the game down but in the 89th minute a delicate ball from Higgins found Rafter with only the keeper to beat and he blasted the ball in off the underside of the crossbar to seal the three points.

Shelbourne were now at sixes and sevens and Memery hauled down Simon Madden in the box in injury time giving the home side a penalty. Mark Griffin stepped up and hit the keeper but the ball spun in slowly to cap off a superb nights work for Declan Devine's men. Devine will be delighted with his charges but its back to the drawing board for Alan Mathews.

Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Simon Madden, Shane McEleney, Ryan McBride, Thomas Crawley; Barry Molloy (c), Ruaidhri Higgins, Sean Houston (Patrick McEleney 70), Barry McNamee; Michael Rafter, Rory Patterson (Mark Griffin 73)
Subs not used: James Gallagher, Dermot McCaffrey, Conal Kelly, Michael Duffy, Ryan Curran.

Booked: S McEleney (30).

Shelbourne: Niall Burdon; Brian Shortall, Ian Ryan, Rob Cornwall, Jack Memery; Mark Leech, Stephen Hurley, Paul Crowley (Sean Brennan 70), Robert Bayly, Dean Kelly (Darren Tinnelly 78); Philip Hughes (Craig Mooney 78).
Subs not used: Alex Prizeman, Adam O'Connor, Pat Flynn, Eoin Comerford.

Booked: Bayly (22),  Crowley (36), Hurley (70), Memery (90+2).

Referee: Dave McKeon.
Attendance: 1,400 (estimate)
ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Sean Houston (Derry City).