Shelbourne - 0 Derry City - 1:Having dented the championship aspirations of Shamrock Rovers on their last league outing, Derry City halted Shelbourne's push for the title with a real smash-and-grab victory at Tolka Park last night.
Against Rovers, Derry hit three without reply, but the difference last night was Tommy McCallion's cracking 15th-minute volley which leaves Shelbourne just four points clear of St Patrick's Athletic at the top of the table, but crucially, they have played two games more than their Dublin rivals.
Derry couldn't really have come into the game in better form having accounted for Rovers by that three-goal margin on their last outing.,
Yet Shelbourne were on quite a good run themselves as they sought to extend their lead at the top of the table, as they had been unbeaten in their previous five games while they had suffered just one defeat in their last 13.
But it was the visitors who stunned the leaders with what turned out to be the only goal of the game after a quarter of an hour of play. And what a goal it was.
Eamon Doherty's cross into the danger area wasn't properly cleared by the Shelbourne defence and lurking 20 yards out was McCallion, whose stunning volley gave goalkeeper Steve Williams no chance at all.
Yet it should really have been the home side who should have grabbed the early advantage as, after only 10 minutes, Stephen Geoghegan set up Jim Gannon who blazed over the bar from just 10 yards out.
The closest Shelbourne came to cancelling out McCallion's effort prior to the interval was after 44 minutes when Owen Heary's long-range effort drifted just wide.
In that opening half, the home side simply couldn't get going and although things did improve somewhat after the break they still lacked the cutting edge in front of goal.
However, they had a couple of extra chances to draw level midway through the second half. Jim Crawford saw his goal-bound header deflected wide, while from the resulting corner Gannon headed agonisingly wide.
Derry could have made life a little more comfortable for themselves but found no way past Williams who saved brilliantly from Doherty and later on from substitute, Liam Coyle in the 70th minute.
And when they did beat the Shelbourne goalkeeper they were denied by the woodwork - as Coyle was in the 77th minute when he saw his spectacular overhead kick hit the crossbar.
SHELBOURNE: Williams, Heary, Prenderville, McCarthy, Hutton, Gannon, Crawford, Fenlon, Byrne, Geoghegan, R Baker. Sub: Houlihan for Byrne 72 min, Minnock for Gannon 83.
DERRY CITY: Payne, E McCallion, Hargan, Kelly, McLaughlin, Doherty, Beckett, McGlynn, Gilmore, T McCallion, McCready. Subs: Hughes for Gilmore half-time and Coyle for McCready 50 mins.
Referee: John Feighery (Dublin)
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