By Gary Ferry at the Carlisle Grounds
Bray Wanderers 0-3 Derry City
Two goals from Rory Patterson helped Derry City move up to fifth place in the Premier Division on a good night for the Candystripes in Bray.
Mick Cooke’s side have endured a woeful start to the season and they fell to their third defeat in three games as Derry proved to be clinical when it mattered, Aaron Barry’s first-half header followed by a second-half double from Rory Patterson.
Bray, for all their possession, never tested Gerard Doherty and they could only look on enviously as the brilliant Patterson struck his two goals with aplomb to mark the difference in quality between the two sides.
The Candystripes almost got off to the perfect start after just three minutes when a snapshot from Gareth McGlynn was brilliantly parried by Peter Cherrie, but only into the path of Rory Patterson who fired the ball into the unguarded net from close range.
Patterson, however, was denied his second goal in three games by an offside flag.
Just two minutes later that frustration turned into celebration as Derry City got the early goal they wanted.
Again McNamee and Patterson were involved as the midfielder’s deep free kick found the striker free at the back post, and his volley across goal was again brilliantly pushed away by Cherrie.
McNamee was quick to react to the loose ball and he dinked a superb cross back into the heart of the penalty area where Aaron Barry stooped to direct a header past Cherrie at his near post to open the scoring.
That was the perfect start for Kenny Shiels and his players but rather than build on that, the visitors surrendered possession and territory to Bray, who were direct in their tactics, getting the ball into the City penalty area at every possible opportunity.
The second half followed the same pattern with Bray dictating the tempo of the game, while the visitors sought to contain the hosts whilst also attempting to break out on the counter attack.
It became evident early on that Derry were attempting to get Ronan Curtis into the game more, the talented young winger seeing a lot more of the ball as his team-mates looked to exploit his pace on the left flank.
For all their possession, the Wicklow side failed to create any real goal-scoring chances with McBride and Barry absolutely superb at the heart of the Derry defence.
The crucial second goal came on 71 minutes and it went the way of Derry after Harry Monaghan bullied his way into the hosts' penalty area, turned his man and picked out a pass for Rory Patterson who hooked the ball past Peter Cherie for 2-0.
With that, the game was up for Bray, and Derry put the gloss on a solid, professional performance as Rory Patterson shrugged off the challenge of Paul Finnegan in added time and casually sidestepped Cherrie before rolling in his third goal in three games to secure the victory.
Bray Wanderers: Peter Cherrie, Hugh Douglas, Alan McNally, Jason Marks (Kurtis Murphy 69), Alan Byrne, Ryan Brennan, Robbie Creevy, Mark Salmon (Ger Pender 69), Karl Moore (Dylan Connolly 87), Andrew Lewis, Paul Finnegan.
Derry City: Gerard Doherty, Niclas Vemmelund, Dean Jarvis (Patrick McClean 90), Ryan McBride, Conor McCormack (Keith Ward 88), Barry McNamee, Harry Monaghan, Rory Patterson, Gareth McGlynn (Aaron McEneff 79), Ronan Curtis, Aaron Barry.
Referee: Rob Harvey.
