Derry City leapt to the top of the League of Ireland as birthday boy Danny Mullen’s injury-time goal earned a dramatic 2-1 comeback home win over St Pat’s Athletic.
Ruairi Keating’s superb strike put Pat’s ahead on 47 minutes before Pat Hoban levelled 18 minutes later.
But substitute Mullen secured the three points in the 92nd minute with a looping shot.
Derry share top stop on seven points with Shelbourne who won 1-0 at Sligo Rovers on Friday night.
The Candystripes beat Drogheda United 2-1 in their league opener before drawing 0-0 in Sligo last weekend.
Derry had the first chance in the fifth minute minute when Hoban connected with Jordan McEneff’s cutback, only for his strike to take a deflection which enabled Marcelo Pitaluga to make a comfortable save.
With chances few and far between for the most part, Keating couldn’t convert Axel Sjoberg’s clever pass from the right flank before Derry’s Will Patching was off target from a 30-yard free-kick.
But Jon Daly’s side opened the scoring on the 47th minute when Keating intercepted a slack back pass by Ben Doherty, travelled forward and fired an unstoppable strike which sailed into the top left-hand corner.
After the opening goal, the home side pushed for an equaliser and their patience paid off as Hoban leapt highest to head Patching’s in-swinging corner past Pitaluga in the 65th minute.
Both teams pushed for a winning goal with Derry midfielder Patching blasting a strike well wide after he had found space outside the box with Luke Turner unable to keep his strike on target at the other end.
But Derry hit a dramatic winner in additional time as Michael Duffy showed great skill down the left wing with his pass falling to Mullen at the edge of the box, who took a clever touch before firing a strike over Pitaluga.
Candystripe boss Ruaidhri Higgins was delighted with the late turn of events at the Brandywell ground after what he admitted had been a “poor” opening hour by his team.
“A great win and to be fair it was an absolutely brilliant team goal,” said the City manager.
“Those bits of play were few and fair between but a real brilliant bit of play and a brilliant finish on his birthday.
“With our change of personnel, I felt we injected life and energy into the game. We definitely finished the stronger and for the last half an hour we were the better team.
“Did we deserve to win it? I don’t really care. We managed to get over the line and it’s probably something we didn’t manage to do enough last year.”
Derry next face title holders Shamrock Rovers on Monday evening at the Tallaght Stadium in Dublin.
Rovers will looking to bounce back after they were recently beaten 2-1 by Shelbourne at Tolka Park.
Tags: