Derry City’s Setanta Sports Cup dream evaporated at a frustrated Brandywell as Glentoran bounced back to record a 2-1 victory having been totally outplayed during the opening period.
It was an amazing transformation and there’s no doubt that Pat Fenlon has his work cut out if he's to breathe new life into his charges before Cork City's visit next Monday night.
Paddy McCourt fashioned three glorious scoring chances within the space of ten minutes but Kevin McHugh failed to take advantage.
But the early pressure told after 15 minutes when the Candystripes took the lead.
A Ruaidhri Higgins corner was not adequately cleared by the Glens defence and when the ball broke to Killian Brennan the winger finished with a superb volley to record his first goal of the season.
But, as was the case in the Linfield match here last week, Derry’s failure to put this game out of reach returned to haunt them as Glentoran levelled matters after 54 minutes.
Having cleared the ball out of defence, the East Belfast side moved forward and when Michael Ward gained possession he swept the ball square across the Derry penalty area where the unmarked BJ McMenamin drove it home across the body of Pat Jennings.
In the 84th minute disaster struck when the ball was played to Willo McDonagh who blasted home from 20 yards.
Derry City: Pat Jennings; Eddie McCallion, Darren Kelly (Peter Hutton, 23 mins.), Ken Oman, Dave Rogers; Paddy McCourt (Kevin Deery, 53 mins.), Barry Molloy, Ruaidhri Higgins, Killian Brennan; Gary Beckett (Mark Farren, 60 mins.), Kevin McHugh.
Glentoran: Michael Dougherty; Cullen Feeney, Philip Simpson, Sean Ward, Kyle Neill; Gary Browne, Ryan Berry (Philip Carson, 85 mins.), Willo McDonagh, B. J. McMenamin (Michael Halliday, 75 mins.); Chris Morgan (Chris Bowers, 85 mins.), Michael Ward.
Referee: Damien Hancock (Dublin).
