Longford Town 0 Derry City 0
Despite playing for over 70 minutes with ten men, Longford Town dug in and clung on to earn a point at a rain swept City Calling Stadium.
Following Conor Powell's early sending off, Longford goalkeeper Paul Skinner was the home hero with a string of top saves.
Reeling form their home defeat to Bohemians last week, Derry boss Peter Hutton made four changes, though two of those were enforced due to the suspension of skipper Ryan McBride and the absence of the injured Paddy McEleney.
In Longford’s only change, Jamie Mulhall came in at right-back for the injured Pat Sullivan.
Derry started as brightly as their yellow shirts in the dank Mullollogher evening and might have been ahead on eight minutes.
Anthony Elding knocked down a Seamus Sharkey free kick for strike partner Cillian Morrison. Instead of shooting first time, Morrison cut past Pat Flynn and overran the ball allowing Skinner to gather as the chance was wasted.
Elding blazed a shot over before cushioning another header down for Morrison who just failed to get a telling touch as Derry continued to take the game to the home side.
Longford responded with Gary Shaw looping a header onto the bar from a Conor Powell cross before David O’Sullivan poked wide from an Ayman Ben Mohamed corner.
Having worked their way into the game, Town were reduced to ten men when left-back Powell followed through in a tackle on Morrison and was shown a straight red card by Dublin referee Ben Connolly.
That gave Derry added initiative. Seanan Clucas’ overhit cross had to be batted our for a corner by Skinner.Josh Daniels then had a shot deflected out for another flag kick off Stephen Rice.
Despite dominating possession, Derry didn’t trouble Skinner again until just before the interval. Having gathered a prodded effort from Elding, Skinner made the stop of the half when rushing out to save at the feet of Daniels.
The save of the night then came from the Longford keeper eleven minutes into the second half when he acrobatically touched Mark Timlin’s shot from 25 yards on to the bar. Elding just couldn’t react sharply enough to scoop home the rebound before the ball was scrambled clear.
Skinner was then there again within a minute to save from Morrison who got through one-on-one.
Town continued to defend doggedly, restricting Derry to only one other clear chance.
That came on 81 minutes when Ryan Curran and Morrison set up Philip Lowry who wasted the opportunity by drilling his shot wide.
Longford Town: Paul Skinner; Jamie Mulhall (Rhys Gorman 50), Pat Flynn, Mark Rossiter, Conor Powell; Mark Salmon, Kevin O'Connor, Stephen Rice, Ayman Ben Mohamed (Kalem Simon 82); Gary Shaw, David O'Sullivan (Martin Deady 23).
Derry City: Ger Doherty; Seamus Sharkey, Shane McEleney, Aaron Barry, Dean Jarvis (Nathan Boyle 86); Josh Daniels (Ryan Curran 68), Seanan Clucas (Philip Lowry 57), Barry McNamee, Mark Timlin; Cillian Morrison, Anthony Elding.
Referee: Ben Connolly (Dublin).
