Linfield beat Derry to go top

Linfield 2 Derry City 1

Determined Linfield came from behind to move three points clear in Setanta Sports Cup Group 1 with a big win against Ulster rivals Derry at Windsor Park tonight.

Derry took the lead with a well-worked goal on 15 minutes.

In-form Kevin McHugh weaved past two players to send Pat McCourt to the end line and his low cross was missed by the Blues defence to leave Mark Farren with a simple tap-in at the back post.

But poor defending saw the Blues troop off 2-1 up at the break.

Bad marking allowed Mark Dickson head Linfield level from Paul McAreavey’s corner on 20.

A mistake by Ken Oman then resulted in central defensive partner Darren Kelly handling the ball inside the box and Oran Kearney gleefully sent Patrick Jennings the wrong way from the penalty.

In a tight second half, Linfield lost defender Kris Lindsay on 79 minutes for a second booking, but held out for a deserved win.