National League, Premier Division/Shelbourne - 2 Derry City - 2: Last night's clash between the top two at Tolka Park had all the appearance of being a make-or -break fixture for the championship aspirations of both these sides. As it turned out, though, perhaps the most dramatic game of the entire campaign so far ended in a draw leaving the title race as finely balanced as it was before kick-off.
Both teams had reason to feel relief at the end but while the Derry City directors celebrated, manager Steven Kenny and his players felt hard done by.
It was easy to understand for once again they had their goalkeeper, this time Monday's hero Pat Jennings, sent off and though they conceded twice afterwards, they somehow deprived Shelbourne of victory once more with a gutsy display of defending while outnumbered.
Shelbourne may have started brightly enough - the home side's midfield knocked the ball around well and there were a couple of half chances - but by the half hour mark they were chasing a game that a couple of costly errors had looked to have put beyond them.
After 25 minutes the back four collectively failed to pick up Pat McCourt as the midfielder ventured unimpeded to the edge of the six yard box from where he headed an angled Darren Kelly cross from the right past a helpless Steve Williams.
Within 40 seconds City had doubled their lead, Stuart Byrne the culprit this time and Kevin Deery the hero with the Dubliner surrendering possession clumsily almost 40 metres out and the Derryman quickly spotting the opportunity to superbly loft the ball over the Shelbourne goalkeeper.
When City virtually restaged their first goal seven minutes before the break with Eddie McCallion providing the cross this time and McCourt again allowed a free header from five yards or so it appeared that the home side were about to be finished off even before they had made it to the interval. But this time the attempt on goal was poorly directed and Williams blocked it with an upraised arm after which McCourt sent the rebound narrowly wide.
It was a let-off for the home side. In contrast, up to this point Derry keeper Jennings had not once been required to make a serious intervention.
That changed almost on the stroke of half time when Joseph Ndo harassed Sean Hargan into a mistake while in possession and Jason Byrne looked set to capitalise. Jennings came rushing out and clattered into the striker a yard outside the area and, despite City's protests that a couple players would have got back to provide another line of defence, referee Paul Tuite produced a red card.
After his heroics at the Brandywell on Monday night, it was a cruel fate for Jennings to suffer although given the recklessness of the challenge he himself had few complaints regardless of the technicalities of the incident from the match official's point of view. The bigger problem on this occasion, however, was that with Forde suspended City didn't have another goalkeeper on the bench and so the team's substitute striker John O'Flynn was brought in to fill the role.
With youth international Eugene Ferry amongst the travelling party the suspicion was that O'Flynn must have done enough at some point to convince Kenny he was a decent fallback in such circumstances but there was precious little evidence of it here.
The Corkman, in fact, looked entirely unsure of himself and though Shelbourne took a while to adapt to the new circumstances they had hauled themselves back onto level terms by the 78th minute.
Presumably frustrated by the failure of those in front of him to even test O'Flynn, Owen Heary scored the first just over an hour in with a thundering strike that, while powerful, would surely have been saved by an actual goalkeeper.
Glen Crowe then bagged his sixth goal in seven games with a header 17 minutes later after Deery gave away possession and Peter Hutton, on for McCallion to marshal things at the back, completely lost track of Ollie Cahill.
It might have been worse for Derry late on as Colin Hawkins was denied a clear penalty when pulled back inside the area and Stuart Byrne then fired over after O'Flynn had parried another Heary shot.
Shelbourne continued to press desperately on for a winner but Derry clung on for a draw which could yet prove important indeed in the title race.
SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Hawkins, Harris, Rogers; Ndo, S Byrne, O'Halloran, Cahill; J Byrne (O'Neill, 75 mins), Crowe.
DERRY CITY: Jennings; McCallion (Hutton, 68 mins), Kelly, Oman, Hargan; McHugh (Holmes, half-time), Deery, Molloy, Martyn, McCourt (O'Flynn, half-time); Beckett.
Referee: P Tuite (Dublin).
