Two goals in the opening nine minutes led Derry City to a comfortable 3-0 win over Limerick FC in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division game at Maginn Park in Buncrana on Sunday evening.
Limerick manager Neil McDonald made just one change to the side that was held scoreless against Sligo Rovers last week as Man of the Match from that game, Stephen Kenny started over Garbhán Coughlan.
The Blues got off to the worst possible start as they conceded within 30 seconds of the very first whistle. A weak back-pass by Joe Crowe was intercepted by Derry’s Barry McNamee who rounded the keeper and finished cleanly to give the Candystripes the lead.
Derry’s lead was doubled within 9 minutes when solid build up play from the home side lead to a Rory Patterson shot from 20 yards out which took a deflection off Lukas Schubert on the way into the bottom corner of the net.
Derry City continued to look dangerous early on as they forced an excellent fingertip save by Limerick keeper Brendan Clarke to keep the lead at two. The resulting corner was hit just wide of the post by Nicky Low.
Limerick’s best chance of the first half came in the 20th minute when Lee-J Lynch’s whipped free kick from deep inside his own half found the head of left-back Dave O’Connor whose effort went just past the top corner.
Stephen Kenny then attempted to catch Derry keeper Ger Doherty asleep with an audacious lob from 35 yards out which went wide. Both keepers made good saves to close out the half with the score at 2-0.
The second half started out slow with the first real chance not coming until the 68th minute when Derry’s Patterson saw his shot from inside the box go over the bar.
Derry’s third came with just five minutes left in the game, as a bad mistake by Dean Clarke at the back post left substitute Doherty in on goal to blast the ball past Brendan Clarke from close range.
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