Derry City (1) - St Patrick's Athletic (1)

Match Report

Derry City 1 - St Patrick's Athletic 1

Derry City will feel they dropped two points in this entertaining 1-1 draw against St Patrick's Athletic.

First-half goals from Rory Patterson and Keith Tracey meant that both sides collected a point a piece.

Derry got off to the perfect start they took the lead on 10 minutes thanks to Patterson's 11th goal of the season, when he finished off a super passing move, by tucking the ball low into Brendan Clarke's bottom right hand corner.

The crossbar came to St Pat's rescue minutes later as Lukas Schubert's stinging long-range effort, was outstandingly tipped onto the woodwork by Clarke.

The Saints equalised somewhat against the run of play when, following a super passing move, Tracey made no mistake firing home from a tight angle, after the midfielder got free inside the Derry penalty box.

Liam Buckley's side missed a glorious chance to take the lead just before the half-hour mark as Ger O'Brien's right-wing cross found defender Sean Hoare, but the big centre-back's effort, while on the stretch was somehow kept out by Doherty.

Doherty was called into action again on 40 minutes; this time he had to get down quickly to keep out Christy Fagan's close-range strike, after Harry Monaghan failed to deal with Ger O'Brien's initial centre.

The home side were on top after the interval and they came close to regaining the lead on 70 minutes but McEneff's 25-yard drive, which had Clarke beaten, sailed wide.

Soon after Doherty had to make another top-drawer stop, this time he denied Billy Dennehy, spreading himself well to keep out the ex-Cork City man's shot.

In the closing stages Fagan saw his close-range header flash just wide, after Billy Dennehy's cross had picked out the striker.

Deep into stoppage time Derry thought they had won it but Niclas Vemmelund's powerful header flew just wide.

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