Stumbling Derry slip to another defeat
Monday 2nd April 2007, 10:13 pm
Derry City boss Pat Fenlon has had a miserable start to life at the Brandywell.
Photo by Tom Carey.
2nd April 2007
Setanta Sports Cup Group 1
Derry City 1
Killian Brennan 15
Glentoran 2
Brendan Joseph McMenamin 54
Willo McDonagh 87
Brandywell Stadium
Derry City's disastrous start to 2007 coninued tonight as they fell to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the already eliminated Glentoran in the Setanta Sports Cup. Not only have Derry now lost four of their last five games, but now they need to go to Drogheda in two weeks and win by two clear goals to sneak into the semi-finals of the competition.
Killian Brennan put Derry ahead in the early going but a late goal from Willo McDonagh condemned Derry to defeat and gave the Glens just their third Setanta Sports Cup win in fifteen games.
Early Derry pressure finally paid off when Brennan volleyed home superbly after Ruaidhri Higgins' corner had only been half cleared by the Glens defence.
Derry's weaknesses were exposed again as Glentoran broke out of defence on 54 minutes and after Michael Ward crossed Brendan-Joseph McMenamin slotted home the equaliser. A draw was nothing to write home about for Derry in the circumstances but they somehow managed to go on and lose against the already eliminated Belfast side.
Not aided by injuries to both starting centre-halves during the game, Derry were struggling on with the injured Ken Oman in the closing moments and Willo McDonagh lashed home the winner from outside the Derry box to put Derry's Setanta progression in serious jeopardy.
Derry City : Jennings, McCallion, Kelly (Hutton 23), Oman, Rogers, McCourt (Deery 53), Molloy, Higgins, Brennan, Beckett (Farren 60), McHugh.
Glentoran : Dougherty, Feeney, Simpson, S Ward, Neill, Browne, Berry (Carson 85), McDonagh, McMenamin (Halliday 75), Morgan (Bowers 85), M Ward.