Derry City - 1 Waterford Utd - 0: Derry City defender Mark McChrystal exacted a small measure of revenge following his side's FAI Cup semi-final defeat by Waterford with the only goal of what proved a lively game at the Brandywell last night.
Waterford can have few complaints and only for their goalkeeper, Packie Holden, making a series of top-class stops, they could easily have lost by a much wider margin.
In an entertaining first half Waterford striker Daryl Murphy sliced the ball wide after just nine minutes, but the home side gradually grew in confidence and were denied when a Damien Brennan header was cleared off the line by Kevin Waters in the 18th minute.
However, three minutes later Derry broke the deadlock following a corner from the right. Kevin Deery floated the ball over and in powered centre-half McChrystal to head the ball powerfully past Holden.
In the 34th minute Derry should have doubled that lead when Gary Beckett intercepted a defensive pass and when he set up Mark Farren, the young striker's effort was parried wide by Holden. To their credit, Waterford should have equalisied in the 36th minute when PJ Banville missed a sitter.
After the break Derry upped the pace and should have added to their lead with Mark Farren and Beckett denied by Holden within the space of six minutes and Gareth McGlynn's header inches wide.
Farren should have ended the game as a contest in the 86th minute but he shot wide with only Holden to beat
DERRY CITY: Forde; McCallion, Hutton, McChrystal, Brennan; Deery, Byrne, O'Grady, McGlynn; Beckett, Farren.
WATERFORD UTD: Holden; Carey (Coleman, 65 mins), Whelehan, Breen, Waters; O'Brien, Mulcahy, Fitzgerald, Quitongo (Sullivan, 65 mins); Murphy, Banville (Bruton, 57 mins)
Referee: H Whoriskey (Dublin).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)