Derry leapfrog St Pat’s thanks to Danny Mullen's strike

Danny Mullen scored five goals against St Pat's last season. Pic: ©INPHO/Stephen Hamilton

SSE Airtricity Premier Division: Derry City 1 (Mullen 48) St Patrick's Athletic 0 

Danny Mullen’s hot streak against St Patrick’s Athletic continued as his superbly taken second half goal proved the winner against the Saints at Brandywell.

It was the Scotsman’s fourth goal of the season which saw Derry leapfrog St Pat’s and move into third spot.

It’s six points from six over the Bank Holiday weekend for Tiernan Lynch’s troops who are just one point off the summit after statement wins over Shelbourne and the Saints.

St Pat’s went into the match on top of the table but slipped to fourth spot after this defeat — a sixth loss in their last seven visits to Foyleside.

Mullen has enjoyed plenty of success against St Pat’s having netted five against the Dubliners last season.

When Paul McMullan threaded a pass through to his fellow Scotsman, Mullen took a touch to round Joseph Anang before applying a neat finish from an acute angle.

Derry managed the game brilliantly after that and despite late pressure, the Candy Stripes defended stoically to ensure a second consecutive clean sheet.

St Pat’s had the ball in the net on 17 minutes when Jake Mulreany headed Zach Elbouzedi’s inswing cringoss past Maher but the assistant referee flagged for offside.

Elbouzedi fired the ball past Maher from an acute angle but again it was correctly ruled out for offside, the winger mistiming his run in behind the City defence.

Duffy did well to find Adam O’Reilly on the edge of the box on 36 minutes and the Cork man’s initial strike was charged down before his follow up attempt from 12 yards was saved by the feet of Anang.

Derry broke the deadlock less than three minutes into the second half when Mullen raced in behind Joe Redmond to get on the end of McMullan’s well-timed pass, touched it around Anang and slotted into the net at the near post.

McMullan played an almost identical pass to send Carl Winchester through on goal five minutes later but the midfielder squared the ball to Mullen who was unable to get his shot away. Pat’s struggled to clear their lines and eventually it broke to McMullan whose strike was saved by Anang.

Stephen Kenny emptied his bench with Chris Forrester, Aidan Keena, Brandon Kavanagh among the attacking substitutions as the Inchicore men went in search of an equaliser.

The ball broke to Keena 20 yards from the Derry goal and he took a touch inside and his deflected strike almost caught out Maher but the keeper did brilliantly to hook it away with his outstretched hand with six minutes to go.

DERRY CITY: B Maher 7; R Boyce 7, M Connolly 7, K Holt 8, H Cann 7, S Ferguson 7 (S Todd 6, 64); P McMullan 8 (G Whyte 7, 74), A O’Reilly 8, C Winchester 7 (R Benson 7, 74), M Duffy 7 (D Thomas 6, 78); D Mullen 8 (L Boyce 7, 64).

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: J Anang 6, A Breslin 7, J Redmond 6, T Grivosti 6 (S Hoare 6, 62), R McLaughlin 6; J Lennon 8, Z Elbouzedi 7, M Melia 6 (B Kavanagh 6, 75), K Leavy 6 (S Power 6, 73), B Baggley-Crowe 6 (Keena 6, 63), J Mulreany 6 (C Forrester 6, 63).

Referee: Damien McGraith.