McEneff’s double strike sinks unlucky Saints

IT’S the ground they love so well.

Three games at the Brandywell in the space of 19 days and three wins for Derry City, the latest a very Good Friday with a 2-1 defeat of St Patrick’s Athletic.

The third of those victories, secured thanks to two goals from Aaron McEneff, was the least convincing as Derry were second best for long spells and as Pat’s headed home they can only wonder how they came away from the new-look Brandywell with nothing to show.

In the 63-minute gap between Derry’s first and second goals, Pat’s owned the ball for long spells but were unable to profit. And their only reward was a close-range finish from Dean Clarke 11 minutes from time, Pat’s deprived of an injury-time equaliser by blocks from Ger Doherty and Darren Cole.

But the man of the evening was Derry midfielder McEneff, who pulled off two superb finishes. A poor clearance from defence by Kevin Toner teed up the first chance for McEneff in the tenth minute and his finish past Barry Murphy was a sweet one.

That was about as good as it got for Derry as Pat’s took the initiative, and on 23 minutes the Saints felt they should have been level. Ger Doherty denied Jake Keegan’s shot, the post denied Dean Clarke, and from the resulting corner American import Keegan did have the ball in the back of the net but ref Rob Harvey had seen an infringement and disallowed the effort.

Pat’s looked more likely to score, but on 73 minutes Derry managed to double that lead, McEneff the architect and the finisher.

He broke from midfield, spotted Patterson out wide, Patterson played the ball back to McEneff and the 22-year-old pulled off a superb finish. Clarke nabbed one from close range for Pat’s on 79 minutes, Derry then escaping in added time when Cole cleared off the line.