Derry cut to the chase

Derry City 3 Cork City 1

In doing so they inflicted the Leesiders' first league defeat since April. Rarely has a top two clash so thoroughly lived up to its billing.

Cork City manager Damian Richardson, conceding his side might be experiencing a little battle fatigue, said: "The defining period of the match was when we did not take our chances after we equalised. Derry took theirs and we've got to accept the result."

Richardson had decided to leave George O'Callaghan on the bench, choosing to retain the midfield axis of Joe Gamble and Greg O'Halloran.

The theory might have been a sound one if it ain't broke don't fix it but there wasn't much in perfect working order in the first half for the league leaders. Pat McCourt set the tone for Derry right from the kick-off when, in keeping with his surroundings, he set off like a greyhound out of the traps, racing from the centre circle right into the Cork box before he ran out of ball.

Two minutes into a frantic opening, Neale Fenn went close for the visitors from an acute angle, his powerful shot blazing just over the bar. But it was Derry who took the game by the scruff of the neck in the fifth minute. In a well-worked free-kick routine, McCourt's deep free to the far post was headed back across goal by Damien Brennan to Gary Beckett, the striker guiding his header inside the post to give Derry a deserved lead.

Tenacious in the tackle and quick to close down space, Derry continued to make life difficult for Cork. The Candystripes were playing like a team which knew that this was their best and perhaps their last chance to keep the title race alive. Cork, shell-shocked by Derry's relentless pressure, struggled to put their passing game together.

Yet, it was Cork on the counter who had the best of the chances to score, as John O'Flynn twice saw goalbound efforts superbly saved by David Forde.

But the Cork striker was his own worst enemy in the 39th minute when Gamble's ball put him through as the Derry defence pushed out. The lineman's flag stayed down but O'Flynn could only make a fluffed contact with the dropping ball and his effort went harmlessly over the top.

Cork's prolonged half-time huddle suggested they were seeking collective strength for what they clearly recognised was their toughest test of the season but, again it was Derry who came out flying from the restart, with Michael Devine forced to make two point-blank saves inside five minutes to deny Ciaran Martyn and then Beckett.

Dan Murray might have been relieved to see yellow with the crowd calling for red after he brought down Mark Farren but as Cork struggled to lift the siege, Richardson decided it was time to spring O'Callaghan from the bench, replacing O'Halloran in the 52nd minute.

Just short of the hour mark, the messiah appeared to have answered Cork's prayers, after referee Paul Tuite had penalised Killian Brennan for handball in the box as the Derry defence attempted to deal with a Cork corner. In the first half, Tuite had angered the home support when he took no action after Mark Farren's shot struck the lunging Alan Bennett on the arm in the Cork box. Now, with Derry players protesting furiously and the crowd raining down a hail of abuse, O'Callaghan was coolness personified as he slotted home the spot-kick.

But with Cork apparently revitalised and beginning finally to turn the screw, it was Derry's turn to show their resilience. And how. In a devastating four minute spell with a quarter of an hour to go, they threw the league race wide open.

First, substitute and former Cork player Stephen O'Flynn put the Candystripes back in front, reacting quickest in the box to get onto Ciaran Martyn's forward header and steer the ball past Devine from close range.

Then, in the 78th minute, Barry Molloy brought the Brandywell to its feet again with a spectacular shot from 30 yards which dipped over Devine and into the back of the net.

It was a goal of the season contender which helps set up what is now looking increasingly like the game of the season the last day clash between these two clubs in Turner's Cross on November 18.

DERRY CITY: Forde, Brenan, Hutton S, Hutton P, Delaney, McCourt (Higgins 80), Brennan (McGlynn 75), Molloy, Beckett (O'Flynn 61), Farren.

CORK CITY: Devine, Horgan, Murray, Bennett, Murphy, O'Donovan (O'Brien 73), Gamble, O'Halloran (O'Callaghan 52), Kearney, Fenn (Behan 86), O'Flynn.

Referee: Paul Tuite.