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Seventh heaven for Derry as Waterford are swatted aside
Seventh heaven for Derry as Waterford are swatted aside

RTÉ News​

time04-07-2025

  • Sport
  • RTÉ News​

Seventh heaven for Derry as Waterford are swatted aside

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).

Liam Boyce feeling sharper than ever as Derry City eye top spot in the table
Liam Boyce feeling sharper than ever as Derry City eye top spot in the table

Belfast Telegraph

time08-05-2025

  • Sport
  • Belfast Telegraph

Liam Boyce feeling sharper than ever as Derry City eye top spot in the table

The Northern Ireland international has appeared in all but two of the Candystripes' 14 games so far and, after a difficult start to life at his new club, he is now flourishing. Regular game time has helped him sharpen his match fitness to the point where his confidence has been rejuvenated. 'We all worked hard pre-season, and I actually said to Tiernan (Lynch) that, after having a few injuries over the past few years, this is probably the best I've felt and the sharpest I've felt on the pitch, and like I could run all day,' he stated. 'He has asked us to give everything we have and if we're tiring, because of the squad we have, someone else will come on and keep the standards at that height. It's good for us and we're all feeling good and we're resting and recovering well and we have a big one again on Friday.' There are noticeable parallels between Boyce's and Derry's season so far, with the striker and the team struggling to settle in during the first set of games only to bounce back from unexpected lows strongly. The ex-Cliftonville man was red-carded last month against Drogheda United just 60 seconds after scoring his first goal for the club on his eighth appearance, but he admits he used that low as motivation to bounce back strongly, adding two more goals in his last three games. 'I scored my first goal and I was buzzing, and then I made a stupid decision and we ended up getting beat,' he recalled. 'You blame yourself for the defeat, but I just came back and tried to work harder than I did before. 'You don't want to let your team-mates down, especially when they're working so hard. You want to score goals and win games and create chances. 'That gave me a wee nudge, because that cost us three points basically because we were winning 1-0 and I thought we were comfortable until then so it gave me an extra bit of motivation to come back and try and help the boys.' Derry could well climb to the top of the Premier Division with a third successive League win at Turner's Cross and Boyce is determined to play his part. 'I think it's that battling for each other and that mentality going into games that has changed,' he added. 'I think we all thought after the Waterford game that that's what we were lacking in that game, so it's been a real emphasis on that and you can see in the last two games we've had two clean sheets against two really good teams, and that's just testament to the fight that we have for each other.'

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