Derry City's ten men battled hard to secure a deserved share of the spoils in a 0-0 draw against in-form Shelbourne, at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
After Sadou Diallo's early red card, the Candystripes worked their socks off and limited Shels to long range efforts throughout the 90 minutes.
The scoreless draw also means Ruaidhrí Higgins' side haven't scored in three of their last four league outings.
The two tightest defences in the league were facing each other, and it showed in the first half as neither Brian Maher nor Conor Kearns had a single shot to save in the opening 45 minutes.
The home side were reduced to ten men on 24 minutes as Diallo was shown a straight red card by referee Rob Hennessy after a challenge on Shane Farrell, while the City midfielder seemed to lunge into the tackle, a caution would have been enough punishment.
Diallo's red card was the Brandywell side's third sending off in their last five league matches.
Minutes later, the visitors were forced into a change as William Jarvis had to be replaced by Evan Caffrey. Maher was called into action on 48 minutes as the ex-St Patrick's Athletic net-minder did well to push away Paddy Barrett's long range strike. Barrett let fly again moments later but again his well hit drive from some 30 yards was this time easily gathered by a diving Maher.
Shels missed a glorious chance just before the hour mark but Jack Moylan's close range header was well off target and Maher grabbed the loose ball.
Maher had to make big save on 63 minutes this time parrying away Shane Farrell's close range stinging drive.
The Tolka Park men thought they had broken the deadlock a minute later as Moylan bundled the ball over the line from close range, but referee Hennessy rightfully cut short his celebrations and chalked off the goal, as he felt the striker handled the ball into the net.
Moylan's disallowed goal was the final real chance in the contests, although it was Shels who were pushing for that all important winning goal, they didn't do enough in the final third.
Derry City: Brian Maher, Cameron Dummigan, Shane McEleney, Cameron McJannet, Ben Doherty; Sadou Diallo, Adam O'Reilly, Will Patching (Patrick McEleney 60); Paul McMullan (Ronan Boyce 80), Daniel Mullen (Jordan McEneff 60), Michael Duffy (Brandon Kavanagh 89).
Shelbourne: Conor Kearns, Tyreke Wilson (Euclides Da Silva Gabral 63), Gavin Molloy, Paddy Barrett, Shane Griffin (Kameron Ledwidge 63); Shane Farrell, Mark Coyle (Gbemi Arubi 85), Jonathan Lunney; William Jarvis (Evan Caffrey 31); Jack Moylan, Harry Wood.
Referee: Mr Rob Hennessy (Dublin).
