League of Ireland: Shelbourne 0 Derry City 1 (Duffy 55)
A piece of Michael Duffy magic undid Shelbourne at Tolka Park as Derry City won for the first time in five outings to Dublin this season.
Winger Duffy’s glorious second half finish was no more than Tiernan Lynch’s side deserved as they avenged their opening-night defeat to the champions in Drumcondra.
Shelbourne can have few complaints as Derry leapfrog them up to fourth place in the table having controlled the pattern of the game for an hour, Damien Duff’s Reds only really coming alive after they had fallen behind.
In stiflingly warm conditions, with the temperature registering 24 degrees at kick-off, Shelbourne began brightly as they initially took the game to their visitors.
But it was Derry who were first to threaten, and on the double at that.
The first chance on eight minutes stemmed from sloppy Shels play as JJ Lunney’s pass was easily intercepted by Duffy.
That set up Liam Boyce whose attempted chip over Conor Kearns had just too much on it.
A minute later Shels were stretched at the back as Gavin Whyte put Boyce in behind down the right.
Kearns did enough to narrow the angle with the striker’s dink bobbling wide across goal.
Shels responded with a promising opening of their own from the game’s first corner on 11 minutes.
Harry Wood’s delivery was on the money for Sean Boyd who rose above everyone to plant his firm header inches over Brian Maher’s crossbar.
Passing the ball well, with Sadou Diallo and Carl Winchester influential in the middle of the park, Derry began to control the game as Shels were struggling to get on the ball.
Despite their possession though, Derry weren’t really hurting Shelbourne, who seemed content to sit off and play on the counter.
A break for Kearns needing attention allowed Duff the opportunity to give his players a talking to on the sideline.
And the reset almost brought a reward on 36 minutes as Shels carved Derry open for the only time in a frustrating first half for the home side.
Wood’s cross was met by a Boyd header with Maher making a fine save in touching the ball out for a goal kick off the lurking John Martin.
Duff withdrew Martin and Kerr McInroy at half-time with Mipo Odubeko and Ellis Chapman introduced in the hope of enlivening his side.
It was more of the same though as Derry promptly regained the initiative with Kearns force into a parry save from a Whyte drive after Shels gave the ball away cheaply.
A sliding doors moment then almost brought a Shelbourne goal at one head before Derry struck for a deserved lead at the other on 54 minutes.
First Evan Caffrey saw his chip headed away by Sam Todd with Maher stranded after colliding with Boyd.
Derry immediately broke with Winchester’s sweeping pass, finding Duffy on the right.
A clever step-over wronged footed Kameron Ledwidge to allow Duffy get the ball onto his left foot and find the far top corner with a sublime curling shot for his seventh goal of the season.
Though Shelbourne owned much of the ball for the remainder of the game, Maher scarcely had a save to make as Derry had done more than enough to take home the points.
Elsewhere, Michael Noonan scored twice as bang in-form Shamrock Rovers beat Cork City 4-1 in a top-versus-bottom clash at Tallaght Stadium to register their eighth win in nine games to stretch their lead to 11 points.
A Douglas James-Taylor goal gave Drogheda Untied a 1-0 home win against Sligo Rovers as they regained second place in the table.
St Patrick’s Athletic’s worries continued as they were beaten 3-1 at Galway United while Bohemians’ good run ended with a 2-1 defeat to Waterford at the RSC.
SHELBOURNE: Kearns; Bone, Barrett, Ledwidge; Caffrey, Lunney, McInroy (Chapman, h-t), Norris (Coote, 63); Wood (O’Sullivan, 77), Martin (Odubeko, h-t), Boyd (Kelly, 63).
DERRY CITY: Maher; Cann, Connolly, Holt; R Boyce, Diallo (McMullan, 62), Winchester (Hoban, 89), Todd; White (Benson, 62), Duffy; L Boyce (Mullen, 62).
