Derry City 1 St Patrick's Athletic 1:DERRY CITY will feel hard done by following this result at the Brandywell last night, but St Patrick's Athletic were deserving of a share of the spoils having put in a great shift over the 90 minutes in front of a healthy Good Friday crowd of 2,500.
In their energetic striker, Daryl Kavanagh, the Dublin side had a player who proved a constant thorn in the home defence.
Indeed, having been denied what would have been a dubious penalty claim during the early minutes, the striker got his reward 10 minutes from time when fouled by Eddie McCallion following another fine run.
It was tough on McCallion, who had been enjoying a fine game up to that point, but Pat’s striker Daniel North made no mistake from the spot to equalise.
Derry had broken the deadlock in the 70th minute when James McClean celebrated his birthday in fine style by lashing the ball home after what had been a fluent move involving Gareth McGlynn and McCallion.
St Patrick’s Athletic goalkeeper Gary Rogers played a captain’s role during injury time at the end of the first half when he produced a superb double save to deny both Kevin Deery and Eamon Zayed.
The goalkeeper blocked Deery’s close-range diving header before pushing Zayed’s rebound high over his crossbar with the space of a few seconds.
DERRY CITY: Doherty; McCallion, Greacen, McEleney, Lafferty; McGlynn, Higgins, Deery, McClean; P McEleney (McDaid, 80 mins), Zayed.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Rogers; Pender, E McMillan, Shorthall, Bermingham; Stewart (Keegan, 66 mins) Crawley, McFaul (Bradley, 80 mins), Doyle; Kavanagh, North.
Referee: D Tomney (Dublin).
