The Northern Ireland international striker, who failed to find the target in his first seven appearances for the club, now has three in his last five appearances and led the line superbly for Tiernan Lynch, as the Candystripes deservedly got back to winning ways.<\/p>\n
Lynch made four changes to the team which lost so poorly at Waterford last week, with Boyce notably returning to the starting XI, despite the fine form of Danny Mullen. Shane Ferguson also returned, and both former Norther Ireland internationals played key roles in what was arguably City\u2019s best performance of the season.<\/p>\n
Shelbourne, who won their league title at the Brandywell on their last visit back in November, dominated the ball in the early stages of the game but they fell behind from a straightforward corner on 14 minutes.<\/p>\n
There was no defender in sight as Michael Duffy arrived unmarked at the back post from Shane Ferguson\u2019s cross, to side-foot in his sixth goal of the season.<\/p>\n
The goal completely destabilised Shels who could have conceded a second goal within minutes. Ferguson\u2019s delivery was headed away by Sam Bone but only into the path of Ronan Boyce, who hit it first time on the volley and it screamed past a beaten Conor Kearns, but just missed the target by inches.<\/p>\n
Damien Duff was upset with the defending for the opening goal, but he could not believe his eyes as Derry doubled their lead just past the half hour. Sam Bone dallied on the ball and his clearance was charged down by Liam Boyce, who went through to volley the ball past Kearns to make it 2-0.<\/p>\n
There was no sign of a response from Shels until the final seconds of the first-half when a long ball over the top was brought down superbly by Evan Caffrey on the run and his low effort across goal had to be turned past the post by Brian Maher.<\/p>\n
Duff made a number of changes to try and get his team back into the game in the second half, but as an attacking force, the champions were completely stifled, their only chance coming from a free-kick 20 yards from goal, but substitute John Marton\u2019s effort was blocked by Carl Winchester.<\/p>\n
The Derry press, which had worked to great effect for the first hour, continued with the overhaul of the home side\u2019s attack, Paul McMullan, Robbie Benson and Danny Mullen replacing Duffy, Whyte and Boyce as Lynch\u2019s high energy tactics continued to work to great effect.<\/p>\n
This was the Candystripes\u2019 first league victory over Shels in three years and their first win at the Brandywell over their Dublin rivals since 2020. More importantly for Lynch, it was a much-needed clean sheet, only the fifth time in 13 games this season.<\/p>\n
City can now go top of the Premier Division if they defeat Stephen Kenny\u2019s St. Patrick\u2019s Athletic at the Brandywell on Monday.<\/p>\n
Derry City: Maher, Cann, Connolly, Holt, R Boyce, Winchester, O\u2019Reilly, Ferguson (Todd 60) Whyte (Benson 60), L Boyce (Mullen 67), Duffy (McMullan 67).<\/p>\n
Shelbourne: Kearns, Gannon, Ledwidge, Bone (Wilson 65), Norris (O\u2019Kane 71), Lunney, McInroy (Martin HT), Caffrey (O\u2019Sullivan 72), Chapman, Odubeko, Coote (Wood 65).<\/p>\n
Referee: Rob Hennessy (Dublin).<\/p>\n
Man of the match: Liam Boyce<\/p>\n
Match rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northern Ireland international striker, who failed to find the target in his first seven appearances for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[8099,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-69379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-derry-city","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114440291219055438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}