Shelbourne leave it late to earn hard-fought draw against Derry
Sean Boyd scored just before injury time as Shelbourne stayed top.
Derry City 1-1 Shelbourne
Paul McMullan thought he had done enough to fire Derry City top of the table - and so did almost everyone at the Brandywell.
But nobody told Sean Boyd, the big Shelbourne striker who is so often a thorn in the side of rival teams.
He came off the bench to equalise with a superb 90th minute finish, getting a long leg in ahead of Cameron McJannet to turn home a Will Jarvis cross at the near post.
It silenced the Brandywell in an instant and then, after four minutes of injury time, left sections of the home crowd ringing out the boos.
Those supporters thought their team were on track to finish a madcap day in the League of Ireland as the new leaders.
Shels have been looking down on the chasing pack for the last two months having nabbed top spot back on March 4.
And they looked set to be knocked off their perch on the back of McMullen’s first goal for the club on his 35th appearance.
But Boyd had other ideas and Shels haven’t come this far under Damien Duff by being a soft touch and remain the team to catch for now.
Since Derry’s win over Shelbourne in the 2022 FAI Cup, these sides had met five times with only three measly goals scored in those games.
Each of the last four meetings have ended all square so while results elsewhere caused a shock, this had a more predictable outcome.
It would have been quite something for both teams to completely veer off course and go on a madcap goal spree - even if Boyd’s equaliser was laced with drama.
It was a tight affair and while Shels played with confidence in the opening exchanges, their neat passages of play tended to be in their own half and around the centre circle.
Rarely did they threaten in the final third during that opening half and a pair of wild, wayward Liam Burt shots was about as good as it got for the visitors.
Derry took time to work their way into the game and while they didn’t overburden Conor Kearns, he was still the busier of the two goalkeepers.
McMullan was Derry’s tormentor in chief, playing in the hole off lone striker Pat Hoban, and he crashed a shot off the upright with the best chance of the half.
Shels headed clear a Candystripes corner but McMullan watched the looping ball every step of the way and, in space, cracked a 20-yard volley off the post.
And two minutes later, he showed great determination to charge down a Kearns clearance from a backpass but the ball skidded out of play, two yards wide of the post.
While Shels lacked ideas in the final third, they were never frustrated by it as they looked to keep a lid on the hosts.
But Derry still played with far more attacking purpose and Hoban wasn’t far away with a headed effort off a Ben Doherty cross before half-time.
Shels brought Matty Smith on at half-time in the hope of adding a creative spark in attack, but Derry got in their first with the opening goal after 56 minutes.
And while McMullan’s finish was exquisite, Shels gift-wrapped the breakthrough moment of the game with some shambolic defensive play.
Kameron Ledwidge played a ball back to Kearns who laid it off to Gavin Molloy but his short pass to JJ Lunney was misplaced and McMullan pounced.
From the edge of the box, he struck first time and crashed a low shot in off Kearns’ far post for his first goal for the club in his 35th appearance.
And the game would have been done and dusted with 20 minutes to go were it not for Kearns’s brilliant save to deny Adam O’Reilly after Will Patching played him in.
It proved costly because when nobody expected it, in the dying stages, Boyd salvaged the Shels point that keeps them top.
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