Dundalk ruins Derry’s Euro hopes with Brandywell’s win

by



[ad_1]

Ahead of the start of their Europa League campaign on Thursday, Dundalk took a significant step toward securing European football for the upcoming season with a win over Derry City at the Brandywell.

Goals from Sean Murray and Jordan Flores in the first quarter proved decisive in the end for Filippo Giovagnoli’s men, who are now four points behind Waterford FC in third place with a game in hand yet to be played over the Blues.

While Darren Cole’s goal in the 18th minute gave Declan Devine’s men some hope that they couldn’t find a draw against a Dundalk side that handled the game well in the second half.

With only three games to play, Derry’s hopes for European football next season are almost dead.

For Dundalk, on Thursday they will arrive at Tallaght Stadium, where they will face Molde in their first match of Group B of the Europa League.

The visitors started at a breakneck pace and hit the front after just seven minutes with Murray shooting into the top right corner since Greg Sloggett’s firing for his first league goal for the Lilywhites since he scored the first goal at Brandywell in March 2019..

Then it was 2-0 for Louth’s men in 15 minutes. After Stefan Colovic had volleyed wide, the Candystripes were caught out of a short goal kick routine with Conor Clifford’s attempted pass back to goalie Peter Cherrie being punished by Flores, who was left with the simpler of the touches.

Just when it looked like Dundalk was going to crush his opponents, Derry received a lifeline when they retired a goal three minutes later.

Aaron McCarey was caught in the sea coming from Adam Hammill’s free kick with Ciaran Coll hitting a header that was blocked off the line by David McMillan.

Fortunately for the locals, Cole was available to shoot on the rebound to make it 2-1.

Derry was largely on top after that with another Murray effort from a Sean Gannon cross that Peter Cherrie handled easily, the best of which came from the visitors for the remainder of the half.

A minute later, Walter Figueira fired at the goal before Ibrahim Meite tested McCarey with a shot from the edge of the area after Clifford caught McMillan in possession.

Figueira would make another good effort four minutes before the break, but his effort was rebuffed by McCarey before Flores cleared it.

Dundalk handled the game much better in the second half, frustrating his opponents for long periods.

In fact, for 36 minutes of the half, a free header from Eoin Toal that had ended was the only notable attempt in the game.

McCarey was then called into action twice within seconds in the 81st minute, first to swing Clifford’s effort around the post before doing the same with a similar effort from Jack Malone after a short corner routine. .

Hammill put in an effort at the 90 minute mark from a free deflection down the right, but showed his effort through the goal.

Patrick McEleney forced a late save from Cherrie from a free kick, but it mattered little as Dundalk held up three big points.

City of Derry: Peter Cherrie; Darren Cole (Colm Horgan 63), Eoin Toal, Cameron McJannett; Ciaran Coll; Conor Clifford, Ciaron Harkin; Jack Malone (Joe Thomson 83), Adam Hammill, Walter Figueira; Ibrahim Meite (Gerardo Bruna 70).

Unused subs: Nathan Gartside, Jake Dunwoody, Ronan Boyce, Mark McChrystal.

Dundalk: Aaron McCarey; Sean Gannon, Daniel Cleary, Andy Boyle, Darragh Leahy; Jordan Flores (Chris Shields 52), Greg Slogett; Stefan Colovic (John Mountney 61), Sean Murray (Patrick McEleney 61, Michael Duffy (Cameron Dummigan 84); David McMillan (Patrick Hoban 52).
Unused subs: Gary Rogers, Brian Gartland.

Referee: Rob Harvey (Dublin).

Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We need your consent to upload this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage additional content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Review your data and accept it to load the content.Manage preferences



[ad_2]