Danny Mullen goal earns Derry City victory over St. Patrick's Athletic

Derry City 1

St. Patrick’s Athletic 0

Danny Mullen scored against St. Patrick's Athletic for the sixth time to send Derry City up into third place in the Premier Division. 

The striker, now level with club legends Liam Coyle and Mark Farren with goals against St. Pat's, seized upon his only chance in the game to separate two evenly-matched sides in an absorbing game at the Brandywell. 

His second half strike make it six points from six for Tiernan Lynch and Derry City from a very profitable weekend, in which the Candystripes defeated champions Shelbourne and title hopeful Pat’s without conceding a goal.

The home side survived a huge scare 17 minutes in when Zachary Elbouzedi got away from Shane Ferguson down the right and delivered a pinpoint cross beyond Mark Connolly onto the head of Jake Mulreany, who guided the ball past Brian Maher from close range. Mulreany had his head in his hands however when he realised that an offside flag had denied him his goal.

Chances were few and far between for both teams in the first half and Derry City failed to threaten until 10 minutes before the break. Danny Mullen’s attempted flick to Paul McMullan was intercepted, but Michael Duffy reacted well and set up Adam O’Reilly for a shot, which was deflected, but brought the first save of the game from Joseph Anang.

Derry City almost gifted St. Pat’s a goal on the stroke of half-time when McMullan’s attempted pass backwards went straight to the feet of Mason Meila, but he wasn’t able to get decent power on his effort and Maher saved comfortably.

The home side wasted little time in the second half when Adam O’Reilly played Danny Mullen in behind the Pat’s defence, and the striker showed great composure to sidestep Anang and slide the ball into the empty net for his fourth goal of the season.

It should have been 2-0 within minutes with a similar situation involving different players, when McMullan played Winchester in on goal, but rather than shoot, the midfielder opted to try and pass inside to Mullan, but the striker was crowded out by recovering Pats’ defenders.

Pat’s came so close to an equaliser seven minutes from time when substitute Aidan Keena cut inside past two challenges and shot at goal, with his effort taking a huge deflection which wrong-footed Maher, but the goalkeeper got back just in time to get a big hand on the ball to claw it off the line.

There was late drama on the sidelines when a scuffle on the Pat’s bench led to red cards for coach Sean O’Connor and player Tom Grivosti, with the final whistle going seconds later to confirm a huge victory for Lynch and his team.

Teams

Derry City: Maher, R Boyce, Ferguson (Todd 63’), Connolly, Holt, Cann, O’Reilly, Winchester (Benson 73’), McMullan (Whyte 73’), Duffy (Thomas 78’), Mullen (L Boyce 63’).

St. Patrick’s Athletic: Anang, Breslin, Redmond, Grivosti (Hoare 63’), Lennon, Elbouzedi, Melia (Kavanagh 75’), Leavy (Power 73’), Baggley-Crowe (Keena 63’), Mulreany (Forrester 63’), McLaughlin.

Referee: Damien McGraith