Cliff Byrne: drew Derry level.
Drogheda United 1 Derry City 1
Derry City are still waiting on their first victory in this season’s SSE Airtricity Premier Division when they were held by Drogheda United at Honky Dory Park tonight.
Derry boss Roddy Collins will be somewhat disappointed with the result as the visitors, in a much improved performance from last week’s 1-0 home defeat to Cork, dominated the game and created enough chances to have won the game.
And it was one of Collins’ pre-season signings, defender Cliff Byrne, who was on hand to grab the goal that earned the point for the visitors who fell behind shortly after the restart.
Derry, starting with Ciaran Gallagher in goal in place of Gerard Doherty, had the majority of the possession in the first minutes without testing Foley in the Drogheda goal.
However, it was home side who were the first to come closest to scoring when Foley sent a 35 yard free kick just wide of Ciaran Gallagher’s right hand post in the 16th minute.
Derry almost got on the scoresheet two minutes later when Michael Duffy beat three defenders to produce a brilliant save from Ryan who pushed the Derry man’s effort onto the crossbar.
Rory Patterson went close in the 25th minute when he headed narrowly over a cross from Mark Stewart.
The league’s leading scorer last season squandered another chance seven minutes later.
Drogheda got lucky five minutes from the break when Foley cleared off the goal-line after Ryan had completely missed his punch from a Derry corner.
The home side took an undeserved lead in the opening minute of the second half when Michael Daly acrobatically volleyed past a despairing Gallagher after the ball had been headed on from a corner.
The visitors almost levelled 10 minutes later when, following a brilliant counter attack, Duffy pulled the ball back for Stewart whose effort was dropped by Ryan but Daly was on hand to clear off the line.
Patterson missed a glorious chance to draw the visitors level when he somehow managed to drag his effort wide of the post from eight yards after being set up by Stewart.
Derry deservedly drew level in the 75th minute when defender Cliff Byrne forced the ball home in a goalmouth scramble following another Ryan fumble.
Patterson eventually found the back of the net in the 80th minute but was ruled offside.
Drogheda United: Ryan, McNally, McColgan, Grimes, Daly, Walshe (McCann 76), Holohan, Foley, Doyle (Maher 62), Brady, O’Neill. Substitutes: O’Connor, Connolly, Andrews.
Derry City: Gallagher, Jarvis, Collins, Byrne, Barry, Ventre, Stewart, Molloy, Duffy, Patterson, E Curran (P McEleney HT). Unused substitutes: Timlin, McNamee, S McEleney, Foy, Elebert, R Curran.
Tonight’s other Premiership results were:
Bohemians (Kenna, og, 65) 1 Shamrock Rovers (McCabe pen 18, Finn 74, Waters 77) 3
Cork City (Kavanagh 18, Dennehy, pen, 67, Buckley 85) 3 Bray Wanderers (Scully 89) 1
UCD (Creevy 34, Mohamed 49) 2 Athlone Town (Gorman 69) 1
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