DERRY City moved into second spot in the Premier Division thanks to a late victory at Shelbourne.
The Brandywell men sealed the points on 92 minutes as Ryan Graydon’s long-range effort took a massive deflection off Shels defender Luke Byrne before flying past a flat-footed Brendan Clarke.
Derry’s second-half display meant that Ruaidhri Higgins’ men deserved the points, but Damien Duff and Clarke in particularly will be disappointed that they didn’t hold on for a share of the spoils
Straight from the kick-off a lovely passing move ended with Patrick McEleney’s 25-yard strike, which had Shels keeper Brendan Clarke worried, fizzing past the post.
Derry thought they had taken the lead on 11 minutes after James Akintunde turned home Graydon’s knock-down, but his celebrations were cut short as the assistant had his flag up for offside.
The home side had a half-chance just after the half-hour mark but JJ Lunney’s deflected 20-yard strike was easily gathered by Derry goalkeeper Brian Maher.
Shels should have done better on 41 minutes but Brian McManus’ failed to test Maher when he blazed over from the edge of the box.
Derry created their first real opening on 48 minutes as Ciaran Coll picked out Joe Thomson and his left-wing cross found Akintunde at the near post, but the Londoner’s side-footed shot was saved by Clarke.
Derry made a double change on 60 minutes as they mixed things up with Michael Duffy and Ronan Boyce replacing Thomson and Kavanagh.
Soon after a curling strike from McEleney had to be tipped over by Clarke and from Graydon’s resulting corner Boyce’s powerful header was blocked on the line by McManus.
Moments later Duffy broke clear down the left before his low cross fell to Akintunde, but his close-range shot was parried away by a diving Clarke.
A misplaced pass by Gavin Molloy on 75 minutes only found Graydon, but after bursting into the Shels penalty box the winger’s shot was kept out by Clarke.
On 89 minutes a McEleney cross found Cian Kavanagh, but the substitute’s header failed to test Clarke and flew over.
Right at the death Graydon ran at the home side’s defence, before seeing his 25-yard shot deflect off the unfortunate Byrne, before finding the net to seal the dramatic victory.
Shelbourne: Brendan Clarke, Conor Kane, Kameron Ledwidge, Luke Byrne, Shane Griffin; Shane Farrell, JJ Lunney (Jad Hakiki 76), Brian McManus (Aodh Dervin 67), Gavin Molloy, Sean Boyd, Jack Moylan (Gavin Hodgins 85).
Derry City: Brian Maher, Cameron Dummigan, Shane McEleney, Cameron McJannet, Ciaran Coll; Sadou Diallo, Patrick McEleney, Joe Thomson (Ronan Boyce 60); Ryan Graydon (Daniel Lafferty 92), James Akintunde (Cian Kavanagh 77), Brandon Kavanagh (Michael Duffy 60).
Referee: Rob Harvey.
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