Premier Division: Derry City 2 [Bannon 74, 85] St Patrick’s Athletic 2 [Melia 40; Forrester 63]
Super-sub Alex Bannon bagged a late brace as Derry City battled back from a two-goal deficit to earn a precious draw against Euro rivals St Patrick’s Athletic at the Brandywell.
The Saints were on a three-match winning run in the league and looked well on course to close the gap on third placed Derry to a single point as they held a comfortable lead with 15 minutes to go.
Mason Melia fired the Dubliners ahead on 40 minutes after a sublime through ball from Chris Forrester.
And the Spurs-bound striker returned the favour on 62 minutes as he set up St Pat’s talisman Forrester who blasted into the roof of the net.
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For a second successive match, Derry overturned a deficit as Burton Albion loanee Bannon curled a spectacular strike into the top corner to begin an unlikely comeback.
From a corner kick with five minutes remaining Bannon bundled the ball home to level the scores as Tiernan Lynch’s side kept the Saints at arm’s length as they remain four points adrift with seven games to go.
In Friday night’s other Premier Division game, goals from Evan McLaughlin and teenager Matthew Murray earned Cork City just their fourth win of the season as they beat Waterford in the Munster derby at Turner’s Cross. Cork remain seven points adrift of Sligo Rovers at the bottom of the table.
DERRY CITY: Maher; Boyce, Connolly, Todd, Fleming; Diallo, O’Reilly (Benson, 68), Frizzell [Bannon, h-t]; Whyte (Mullen, 68), Akinyemi, Duffy.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Anang; McLaughlin, Redmond, Sjoberg, Turner, Kazeem (McClelland, 70); Lennon, Forrester (Robinson, 90+3), Leavy; Power (Baggley, 79), Melia (Carty, 90+3).
Referee: Marc Lynch (Galway).
