Waterford 2 St Patrick’s Athletic 0
Third-placed Waterford inflicted a fourth straight defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic last night to maintain their push for European qualification.
Liam Buckley’s side never recovered from losing Kevin Toner after 15 minutes to a red card and strikers Courtney Duffus and Izzy Akinade made them pay with second half goals.
Akinade, who extended his contract at the RSC until 2019 earlier in the week, was dragged down by Toner as he raced clear for the game’s pivotal moment.
It certainly swayed the game in Waterford’s favour as they had been lucky to survive when Darragh Markey’s ninth minute deflected shot rattled the underside of the crossbar.
With Sander Puri and Bastien Héry dominant in midfield, the Blues exploited the space afforded by the extra man.
Ten minutes into the second half, Rory Feely’s cross was connected with by Akinade. Despite Barry Murphy getting a fingertip on the effort, Duffus followed in to head in his 10th goal of the season.
The second arrived with 15 minutes through the same combination, with Duffus releasing Akinade to poke past Murphy.
Although Ryan Brennan rippled the side net and Ian Bermingham had a goal disallowed in stoppage time, St Pat’s were once again well off the pace.
WATERFORD: Connor; Feely, Browne, Webster, Daly; Héry; Kasmi (J Martin 68), Holohan (Dean Walsh 88), Puri; Akinade (O'Halloran 86), Duffus
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Murphy; Madden, Toner, Desmond, Bermingham; Lennon, Brennan; C Byrne (Barker 18), Markey (Doona 83), Clarke; Keegan (Turner 75).
Referee: R Matthews (Kerry).
Attendance: 1862.
Bohemians 1 Derry City 2
Rory Hale scored his first goal for Derry City as they made it a remarkable 10 straight wins over Bohemians since manager Kenny Shiels took charge.
The welcome victory ended three successive defeats to get the Candystripes’ quest for Europe back on track.
The one consolation on the night for a very sluggish Bohemians was Limerick losing at Dundalk which keeps Keith Long’s Gypsies three points clear the relegation playoff place.
A scrappy start to the game cried out for some invention to bring it to life and it thankfully arrived 22 minutes in as Derry took the lead.
A delightful turn by Aaron McEneff cleverly made some space with his through ball then perfectly wighted for the run in behind of Hale who shot under Shane Supple to the net despite the Bohemians keeper getting a touch to the shot.
It got worse for Bohemians three minutes later.
A McEneff corner was only partially cleared to Rory Hale who drilled a low shot back into the box for Rory Patterson to score with a tap-in.
Bohemians huffed and puffed for much of the second half before getting a goal back with their first shot on target on 86 minutes when substitute JJ Lunney swept home with his left foot from the edge of the area.
BOHEMIANS: Supple; Pender, Cornwall, Morris, Kirk; Kavanagh (Devaney, h-t), Brennan, Watts, Stokes; Ward (Lunney, 67); Corcoran (Grant, 73).
DERRY CITY: Doherty; McDonagh, Toal, McDermott, Doyle; Cole; Ronan Hale, McEneff, Rory Hale (Low, 71), Curtis; Patterson (Farren, 90+5).
Referee: Graham Kelly (Cork).
