Seventh heaven for Derry as Waterford are swatted aside

RTÉ News​

3 days ago

Derry City produced a magnificent seven-goal display to swat aside a shell-shocked Waterford side at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
While Liam Boyce will rightfully grab all the headlines with a hat-trick, it was Michael Duffy who stole the show.
The 30-year-old scored one and set-up four of Derry's goals, as he rolled back the years with a fantastic all round performance.
Derry, who lost twice to Waterford this season, started like a team wanting to put things right.
The Brandywell men produced a sensational first half performance and in truth should probably have been further ahead at the break, but they put the record straight after the break and continued to pile on the goals.
City started on the front foot and took the lead on five minutes following a flowing move which saw Mark Connolly found Ronan Boyce, he in turn found Gavin Whyte, who fed Boyce and the striker made no mistake blasting high past Bradley Wade.
The woodwork came to Waterford's rescue minutes later as Duffy's outswinging corner from the right found Connolly, but the centre-back's header, which had Wade beaten, clipped the top of the bar.
Soon after Waterford missed a super chance to equalise but Padraig Amond's tame effort from 20 yards was easily saved by Brian Maher.
Derry doubled their lead on 24 minutes when another flowing move ended with Boyce releasing Duffy down the left, he in turn cut the ball back for the ex-Cliftonville man to fire home his second on the night, despite Wade's best attempts at trying to keep it out.
The home side netted their third goal in stunning fashion as Sadou Diallo's 25-yard thunderbolt flew past Wade off the underside of the crossbar.
Wade had to make a top save minutes later when he spread himself well to deny Duffy and Boyce was inches away from completing his hat-trick as his close range header was kept out by the Waterford net-minder.
Derry incredibly scored their fourth on 41 minutes as Duffy's left wing corner found Connolly and his glancing header nestled in the bottom right hand corner.
A defensive mistake by the home side on 49 minutes resulted in Amond getting in behind the back-line and the ex-Ireland striker made no mistake slotting the ball home past Maher.
Normal service was resumed on 52 minutes as Whyte's delightful cross field pass released Duffy, who calmly cut in on his left foot, before blasting home past Wade.
Boyce completed his hat-trick just before the hour mark as Whyte's fantastic right-wing centre found the City marksman and he slid the ball home at the near post.
Whyte got himself amongst the goals on 74 minutes when he coolly slotted the ball low into Wade's bottom left hand corner, after that man Duffy picked him out on the edge of the box.
The Blues scored another consolation goal five minutes later as Amond finished well when getting in behind the Derry defence.
In the closing stages Derry should have grabbed an eighth goal but substitute Danny Mullen was denied as Wade kept his close range shot out.
Derry City: Brian Maher, Hayden Cann, Mark Connolly, Kevin Holt (Shane Ferguson 75); Ronan Boyce, Carl Winchester (Adam O'Reilly 75), Sadou Diallo, Gavin Whyte, Michael Duffy (Robbie Benson 76), Sam Todd; Liam Boyce (Daniel Mullen 64).