Derry City 1-3 Galway United

Former Derry City striker, Alan Murphy led Galway to a surprise victory over Derry City at the Brandywellon Tuesday night.

The home side opened particularly well and while James McClean broke the deadlock after just four minutes, Derry could have added at least another two goals, such was there early dominance.

However, the Foyleside club’s well-documented financial difficulties are beginning to cause frustration and the Brandywell attendance was much smaller than had been anticipated.

Mark Farren, Tam McManus and McClean all spurned decent scoring chances within the opening 15 minutes, and Derry's high tempo start appeared to drop significantly as the opening period wore on.

And they were punished for that ineptitude in the 44th minute, conceding what was a particularly soft equaliser.

Murphy floated a free-kick into the danger area and when Seamus Conneely headed the ball across the face of the goal, the well placed David Cooke forced it home from point-blank range.

In fact, Derry never really recovered after the break and the attendance of 1,500 was stunned in the 68th minute when Galway took the lead.

Attempting to break forward on the left, McClean and Barry Molloy were both caught out and when the ball was fed to Aaron Green he raced past Peter Hutton, skilfully turning inside, before drilling the ball low into the net.

And Derry’s problems were compounded further in the 75th minute when Galway netted a third goal to effectively kill the game as a contest.

Keeper Ger Doherty threw the ball out in an attempt to find Eddie McCallion who had already started to move forward and Murphy was quick to react, the midfielder producing a superb strike, curling the ball home from 18 yards.

Derry City: 1 Doherty; 2 McCallion, 3 Delaney, 4 Hutton, 12 O’Brien (17 Molloy, 18 mins.); 14 McGlynn, 7 Higgins, 8 Martyn (10 Stewart, 69), 19 McClean; 23 McManus, 18 Farren (27 Nash, 80).

Subs not used: 16 Jennings, 20 Scullion.

Galway United: 1 Ryan; 15 Sinnott, 2 Conneely, 5 Breen, 3 O’Toole; 4 Cooke (14 Fitzgerald, 46), 16 Kelly, 10 Murphy, 17 McBrien; 19 Green, 9 Faherty.

Subs not used: 12 Sangi, 20 Molloy, 22 Hanley.

Referee: D Hanney (Dublin).