Mark Farren maintained his scoring streak against UCD as Derry beat the Students for the third time this season to keep themselves two points behind third-placed Cork City in the table.
It was a damaging sixth defeat in eight games for UCD who drop back into the bottom three for the first time in six weeks.
Farren had scored in Derry previosu two wins over College this season and he worked the oracle again for Stephen Kenny's side to break the deadlock on 55 minutes.
Impressive winger Niall McGinn's cross was flicked on by Sammy Morrow and Farren lost his marker to nip in and side foot past Matt Gregg for his eighth goal of the season.
UCD should have been level within five minutes, though. Shane Duggan skipped into the box to brign a terrific save from Ger Doherty with Timmy Purcell guilty of a bad miss as he blazed the rebound over the bar.
But Derry doubled their lead with a superb strike from Kevin Deery on 68 minutes.
McGinn again was involved setting up the midfieder with Deery steadying himself to rifle a shot from outside the are that arrowed past Gregg into the bottom left corner of his net.
UCD hit back to set up a grandstand finish when substitute Greg Bolger burst though one-on-one with Doherty to lift the ball to the roof of the net, but Derry held on for a big three points.
UCD: Gregg; Mahon (Ward, 83 mins.), McNally, McMillan, Kenna; McWalter, King (McFaul, 73 mins.), Duggan (Bolger, 73 mins.), Fitzgerald; Meenan, Purcell.
Derry City: Doherty; McCallion, Delaney, Hutton, Gray; McGlynn, Deery, Higgins (Molloy, 85 mins.), McGinn; Morrow (Stewart, 76 mins.), Farren (McHugh, 76 mins.)
Referee: Ian Stokes (Dublin).
