Barry McNamee was the hero for Derry City, as his 8-minute hat-trick late in the game sealed another three points in a wonderful week for the Candystripes.
After beating Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk in the space of four days, they followed that up with a superb 4-0 win over Drogheda United in Maginn Park.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Drogheda were well in the game heading into the final quarter.
An Early Ronan Curtis goal had Derry on top, but Drogheda had chances of their own, but City keeper Gerard Doherty managed to deal with whatever came at him.
With fifteen minutes to go, McNamee began his own high-light reel. His pace got him in behind the United defence, and he poked the ball past Stephen McGuinness for his first.
Just seconds later he managed to get on the end of rebound, off a Josh Daniels effort, to hit home. And then a wonderful free-kick secured the hat-trick.
Assistant Manager Hugh Harkin told us, “We were really happy with the result against a stubborn Drogheda although the score line doesn’t reflect the story of the game as Drogheda were well in it in the first half.”
“Ronan Curtis’s goal gave us a halftime lead but Drogheda themselves could have scored twice in the first half through Elliot but was denied by Gerard Doherty.”
” The second half saw us take more control of possession and we were more threatening but goals change games and when Barry scored 2 quick goals in the space of a couple of minutes the game was over as a consequence.”
“Barry completed his hat-trick a few minutes later with a sublime free kick.”
“We weren’t as fluid as we could be and had to change a few things due to having to play 4 games in 12 days so we were more happy with the result than the performance.”
Derry will head back to Maginn Park again on Tuesday evening, as they will go again against Limerick FC in their re-arranged clash after floodlight failure caused the original fixture to be abandoned.
Photo Credit: JPJPhotography