Another draw for Derry City

Friday night at Maginn Park saw the attendance entertained to a thrilling game between Derry City and St Patrick’s Athletic.
The two-all draw had excellent goals, great saves and some impressive individual performances on both sides.
Derry were forced into two changes to the starting eleven minutes before the kick-off. Nicky Low and Nathan Boyle withdrawn and replaced by Aaron McEneff and Mikhail Kennedy.
Kennedy should have scored in the tenth minute when he reacted quickest to the parry by the Pat’s keeper as he saved McEneffs long range shot. Sadly Kennedy steered the ball by the Pat’s goal.
McEneff hit another effort in the 19th minute but the keeper spilt it and there were no Derry players attacking the ball.
Pat’s took a surprise lead on 20 minutes. Kurtis Byrne poked the ball home from close range after he was put in on goal by Conan Byrne.
Two minutes later, Harry Monaghan had a shot from close range acrobatically pushed over the bar by the keeper Conor O’Malley.
Darragh Markey got time and space to run at the Derry goal and his shot from 20 yards was well saved by Gerard Doherty.
Derry levelled on 38 minutes through Ronan Curtis. Lukas Schubert fed a neat pass to Curtis who hit a fierce drive from the left edge of the box that the keeper could not get near.
Barry McNamee hit a great pass to Schubert who in turn fed Kennedy setting him up to shoot from the 18 yard line. Kennedy hit a daisy cutter when a higher more powerful shot would surely have seen a goal for Derry.
The break came at a bad time for Derry as they had improved in the closing minutes.
In the 58th minute, Kurtis Byrne hit a strong shot at goal which Gerard Doherty palmed wide with a good block low to his left.
On 64 minutes, McNamee skied a shot at goal well over the bar from 20 yards out.
St Pat’s went ahead again in the 68th minute. Conan Byrne chipped the Derry keeper from the right side of the box.
City were slower in their display in the second half and seemed to struggle with the St Pat’s approach to the play.
Their efforts were rewarded with a second goal with six minutes to go.
Conor McDermott poked a short ball in the box to McEneff who hit a strong low shot with his right foot that evaded the dive of the Pat’s keeper.
St Pat’s keeper Conor O’Malley was a real thorn in Derry’s side, with a string of excellent saves.
Derry’s next game sees them entertain Bohemians at Maginn Park next Friday.