Limerick, Brandywell: A team and a venue, which conspired to create a moment, the Derry City fans could hardly forget. A 5-0 win for the Candy Stripes at their newly refurbished Brandywell stadium against Tommy Barrett’s Limerick was exactly the st
Limerick, Brandywell: A team and a venue, which conspired to create a moment, the Derry City fans could hardly forget.
A 5-0 win for the Candy Stripes at their newly refurbished Brandywell stadium against Tommy Barrett’s Limerick was exactly the start at home Kenny Shiels desired. A hat-trick from Ronan Hale produced a stunning victory for Derry City as they bounced back from their 6-1 defeat against Shamrock Rovers on Friday night.
Buncrana and Maginn Park provided some dazzling and dark moments for the Brandywell faithful last season, but as the floodlights managed to hold up, the new artificial surfaced look the part.
However, the score line didn’t reflect the opening moments at the Brandywell as Derry started slowly, roared on by their fans in the newly opened Mark Farren Stand. Message received. After nine minutes, Ronan Hale secured his first of the game in emphatic style.
Making history, scoring the first goal at the new Brandywell, Hale found the net after a perfect piece of interplay by Rory Patterson. Not much else occurred the opening interval with both teams failing to recycle the ball in crucial periods of play.
That changed in the second quarter, with Kenny Shiels influence clearly resonating throughout his young outfit. After 61 minutes, Ronan Curtis produced Derry City’s second to give them clear daylight and his third of the campaign.
The Derry drumming truly started from there on, as three minute later Aaron McEneff got in on the action, following a Nicky Low effort, which hit the crossbar. Four goals to the good and three points all but secured, an extra layer of gloss was added when Tony Whitehead fouled Ronan Hale inside the penalty area and referee, Ben Connolly pointed to the spot.
Brendan Clarke, who produced some excellent saves throughout, was let down by a poor defensive performance once again, and he failed to stop Hale from running away with the hat-trick ball at the end of the night.
