Derry City 0-1 Cork City
DARREN DENNEHY PROVED an unlikely hero at the Brandywell as Cork City claimed their first victory of the season courtesy of the defender’s second half header.
It was a much deserved win for John Caulfield’s troops who have made a promising start to the new SSE Airtricty Premier Division season.
Dennehy was a thorn in the side of the Derry defence from set-pieces throughout the 90 minutes and after having an effort cleared off the line in the first half, he made amends with a well-placed header on 53 minutes.
Roddy Collins made two changes to the team which opened the campaign at Shamrock Rovers with Michael Duffy and Shane McEleney making way for Rory Patterson and Patrick McEleney.
New Candystripes signing Jon Paul McGovern watched the game from the stands as the club still await international clearance for the former Celtic Nation midfielder.
Cork City meanwhile, started without the suspended John Dunleavy while Anthony Elding failed a pre-match fitness test, leaving Mark O’Sullivan to roam the frontline on his own.
Danny Ventre’s ambitious long-range effort which was saved comfortably by Mark McNulty was the first shot on target in a tame opening by both sides.
The poor Brandywell pitch certainly wasn’t helping matters but the game sparked into life on the half-hour mark.
A towering header by Darren Dennehy at the back post from a corner was cleared off the line by Barry Molloy as the home fans in attendance breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Derry countered immediately and Patrick McEleney sent Patterson scampering through but his low drive from just inside the penalty area was saved well by the advancing McNulty.
The visitors almost captialised from a clever Colin Healy free-kick on 33 minutes which caught the Derry defence napping but O’Sullivan failed to get that vital touch before Doherty came to claim.
The Candystripes were struggling to contain Cork at set-pieces and the Rebels deservedly took the lead from a free-kick eight minutes after the interval.
Billy Dennehy whipped the ball into the back post where his younger brother Darren was gifted a free header and he guided it into the far corner.
The Cork defence was resolute but the home lot failed to muster up a reponse to that deserved opening goal from Dennehy.
The Rebels were comfortable for much of the second half and were more than happy to sit back and protect their slender advanatge.
Derry did little to threaten McNulty’s goal with Patterson’s wayward strike from distance the Candystripes only notable effort in a disappointing second half display.
DERRY CITY: Doherty, Collins, Byrne, McBride (Jarvis 45), Barry, P McEleney (Duffy 59), Molloy, Ventre, Curran, Stewart (S McEleney 75), Patterson.
CORK CITY: McNulty, Lenihan, D Dennehy, Murray, Kearney (Kavanagh 57); Morrissey, Buckley, Healy, Murphy, B Dennehy (O’Leary 86); O’Sullivan.
Referee: Neil Doyle (Dublin).
Watched the first 30 mins before switching to NLDN Derby,wasn’t much on offer from either side,pitch was an embarrassment.
Get your cameras down to the Cross,great pitch,cover a game against another team that plays ball and you”ll have something worth tuning in for.
CCFC OHWAY OHWAY OHWAY, OHWAY OHWAY OHWAY,
CCFC OHWAY OHWAY OHWAY
Shoddy Roddy shown up again!
Muppets in Montrose chose a game on the worst surface in the country, put it up against Derry V Dublin and Spurs V Arsenal , genius!
Aren’t the Brandywell and Celtic Park located extremely close by each other. Seemed like a good crowd in Celtic Park today, not surprising as the Dubs will always be a big draw. Crazy that the Derry City match was allowed clash. Any speculation on what sort of impact this could have had on the crowd?
Pitch looked dire.
I don’t think it would have made any difference. Derry’s Gaelic team is mostly supported by people from county Derry, and the football team is mostly supported by people from the city. Im from Derry and I honestly had no idea that Dublin was playing here today, nobody really cares.
If Roddy continues playing this awful style of football I can’t see how we can increase our home attendance.
Extratime.ie estimated only 1,100 in the Brandywell for first home game of season. I would of thought this to be very poor for traditionally one of the league’s better supported teams – in the context of attendance figures for all other clubs over the first two weeks.
Don’t know if Roddy’s style of play can be singled out as the major impact on the crowd in what was only his first home league game.
Difficult to see the Derry v Dublin game next door not having any impact but I’m looking at it from a Cork sporting perspective and will bow to your superior local knowledge.
No need to go head to head with it over a long weekend anyway. It’s a competitive market to get the casual fans through the turnstiles.
I said I would turn it on instead of Spurs-Arsenal, support the local game and all that. Lasted about 4 minutes……absolutely dreadful
Groundsman at the Brandywell needs sacked