A sublime Barry McNamee free-kick earned Derry City a deserved point against Limerick, at Maginn Park.
McNamee, who returned to the starting line-up after a recent hamstring injury, fired home on the hour mark to cancel out Shane Duggan's first half strike.
The Candystripes made one change to their side which drew with Sligo Rovers, with McNamee returning for Ronan Curtis, who dropped to the bench.
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Limerick took the lead on 12 minutes after City lost possession to easy as Ben Doherty's miss placed pass only found Duggan and the skipper made no mistake firing home from fully 20 yards.City were on the back foot for long periods of the first half and in truth their only real effort came just before the half-hour mark but McNamee fired over.
Derry made a change at the break with Curtis replacing Mark Timlin and the change worked as the home side started to come more and more into the game.
Kenny Shiels' side drew level on 60 minutes as McNamee's curling left footed free-kick on the edge box flew into Clarke's bottom right hand corner.Limerick went close twice after City's leveller but Rodrigo Tosi went close on both occasions, but his efforts were kept out by Doherty.
Soon after Clarke had to make a tremendous save on 70 minutes when he tipped over Curtis' 25 yard drive.
A super last ditch block by Tony Whitehead denied McNamee a winning goal, as his close range strike was charged down by the centre-back.
Derry City: G Doherty, McDermott, Barry, Jarvis, B Doherty; Schubert (Kennedy 76), Monaghan, Low, Timlin (Curtis HT); McNamee, Boyle.
Limerick: Clarke, Kelly, Williams, O'Conor, Lynch, Duggan, Tosi (Walsh 88), Whitehead, Robson, Mulhall (Clarke 69), Ogbene.
Referee: Mr Paul Tuite (Dublin).