Drogheda United 3 Finn Harps 1
Drogheda United came from behind against Finn Harps to win at home for the first time since May.
Will Seymore’s low drive on nine minutes put Harps ahead but the game swung on a contentious incident 12 minutes later.
Expecting an uncontested bounceball, Drogs instead regained possession and won a corner, from which Mark Doyle steered his header into the bottom corner.
The Harps management were livid, leading to the dismissal of assistant Paul Hegarty at half-time but they were trailing by that stage. Darragh Markey was afforded too much time and space on 41 minutes to cut in from the right and beat Mark McGinley with a tame shot.
Harps, whose promising start to the season has tailed off by their return of just two points from 18, hardly threatened after the break, apart from a couple of Adam Foley efforts which goalkeeper David Odumosu repelled.
Rather, it was the home side who added to their winning margin, keeping them just a point off fifth-place Bohemians.
Drogheda: D Odumosu; J Brown, D O'Reilly, D Massey, C Kane; L Heeney (J Clarke 66), G Deegan, K Phillips; D Markey, C Lyons (M Hughes 87), M Doyle (D Corcoran 70).
Finn Harps: M McGinley; E Boyle, K Sadiki, J Dunleavy; K O'Sullivan (R Connolly 73), R Rainey, C Barry (S Doherty 57), W Seymore (T McNamee 88), B McNamee; T Olowabi (S Boyd 73), A Foley (L Rodden 88).
Referee: Adriano Reale (Kildare).
Derry City 2 Waterford 0
Derry City brought Waterford’s recent positive run to halt at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, having produced a professional performance to record the club first win on home soil since last October.
And it was a deserved victory for Ruaidhri Higgin’s side, the ‘Candystripes’ having dominated the scoring chances.
Waterford boss, Marc Bircham, can have few complaints in relations to this defeat, his side clearly struggling in the final third of the park.
Derry broke the deadlock three minutes before the break and it was a deserved lead, Waterford having failed to trouble home ’keeper Nathan Gartside during the opening period
And it was a dream debut for Derry youngster Evan McLaughlin who was rewarded with his first goal.
The ball was worked into the penalty area from the left flank and when McLaughlin gained possession, he refused to give up, eventually getting a toe to the ball to poke it home from 10 yards in a packed penalty area.
Waterford also introduced Max Hutchinson to League of Ireland football, however the son of former Liverpool and Ireland international Don will have been disappointed, as he was substituted in the 66th minute.
Derry continued to dominate the play after the break and they doubled their lead in the 53rd minute with a superb team goal.
Producing quality passing movements on the flanks, Joe Thomson was played into space and having carried the ball forward with his right foot, the Scot produced a superb before curing the ball high into the top corner with his left peg.
Waterford were denied twice in the 72nd and 74th minutes when Gartside did well to parry efforts from substitute Cian Kavanagh and Jack Stafford respectively, the visitors’ first clearcut chances of the match.
Derry substitute and another debutant Jamie McGonigle was denied getting on the scoresheet in the 77th minute Waterford goalkeeper Brian Murphy doing well to parry the powerful shot.
Derry should have lost the services of captain Eoin Toal five minutes from the end when he impeded Kavanagh, in what appeared to be a last man offence, however referee Paul McLaughlin opted to produce a yellow card, much to the delight of the home attendance of 400.
Derry City: Gartside; Toal, McJannet, Coll; Boyce, McLaughlin (Cole, 73), Harkin, Thomson (Malone, 85), Lafferty; Junior (McGonigle, 64); Akintunde (Fitzgerald, 73).
Waterford: Murphy; Power (Collins, 80), Ferguson, Evans, Stafford; O'Keefe, Hutchinson (Kavanagh, 66); Tshipamba (Sobowale, half-time) , Griffin, Martin; Mutswunguma.
Referee: P. McLaughlin (Donegal).
