Derry’s hunger ‘delights’ Brennan

A hungrier Derry secured their first points of this League campaign in this disappointing encounter in Celtic Park on Saturday night.

And winning manager John Brennan didn’t hide his relief afterwards admitting: “The lads worked hard and I’m delighted for them. We had taken some stick after the two games but this is a great feeling.’’

Derry dominated midfield from the outset with Paddy Bradley reaping the rewards of their territorial advantage while centre back Michael Bateson also impressed for the hosts. Monaghan adopted an ultra defensive approach with Paul Finlay often a lone isolated figure in attack.

Brennan’s side had points from Bradley, Bateson, Mark Lynch and Enda Lynn before Finlay opened the Monaghan account in the 19th minute.

Bradley tagged on three more before Darren Hughes had Monaghan’ssecond point on the half hour but the visitors were rocked by the dismissal of Matthew McKenna (second yellow card) for a late challenge on Barry McGoldrick. They responded with an Owen Duffy point but a McGoldrick effort left Derry 0-9 to 0-3 ahead at the break.

Monaghan introduced Tomás Freeman for his first outing since last season at the start of the second half and injected some momentum up front but Derry still held a decisive edge particularly around midfield.

Bateson put Derry seven ahead two minutes after the restart and while Monaghan cut the gap through Freeman and Hughes, they struggled to break down the home defence.

While Monaghan got the margin down to five with seven minutes remaining there was no way Derry were going to let this one slip. The home side had the last say with a Mark Lynch point on the half hour and from there to the finish they just played the clock down against a team that never established a foothold in the game at any stage which disappointed manager Eamonn McEnaney more than the actual result.

He said: “We never got into the match. We were just flat and at least half of Derry’s points came from mistakes we made.”

DERRY: B Gillis, B McCallion, C McKaigue, A McAlynn, M Craig 0-1, M Bateson 0-2, SL McGoldrick 0-1, M Friel, PJ McCloskey, N Forrester, G O’Kane, B McGoldrick 0-1, M Lynch 0-2 (1f), P Bradley 0-6 (3f), E Lynn 0-1.

Subs: C Kielt for M Bateson, C Gilligan for E Lynn, E MvGuckina for M Lynch, Patsy Bradley for Paddy Bradley.

MONAGHAN: M Keogh, V Corey, Darren Hughes 0-1, C Walsh, D Malone 0-1, D Mone, David Hughes, O Lennon, D Clerkin, M McKenna, P Finlay 0-2 (2f), J Turley, D Morgan, K Hughes 0-2, O Duffy 0-1.

Subs: T Freeman 0-1 for David Hughes, C McGuinness for O Duffy, K Duffy for C Walsh, N McAdam for J Turley.

Referee: E Kinsella (Laois).