Derry City 4-0 Finn Harps
Derry City claimed the bragging rights with a comfortable win over Finn Harps tonight in a tame North West derby at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
Harps battled well in the first half-an-hour, and Daniel O’Reilly came close to giving the visitors the lead.
Derry were then granted a soft penalty in the 31st minute for an O’Reilly push on David Parkhouse. Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe saw his spot-kick saved by Peter Burke, but the Derry winger scored from the rebound.
Ogedi-Uzokwe also had a goal disallowed before Ciaron Harkin notched a superb free-kick in the 44th minute to put Derry 2-0 up, and that was the score at half-time.
Harps struggled to get a foothold in the game and Derry made it 3-0 in the 67th minute when Harkin took advantage of a Mark Coyle error, and fired into the bottom corner.
Nathan Boyle did force Peter Cherrie into a good save late on, but Harps were poor on the night and were well beaten by their neighbours.
Derry rounded off their victory with a fourth goal in injury-time when Ciaron Harkin completed his hat-trick.
UCD also lost tonight, but Harps’ heavy defeat saw them drop below the students to bottom of the table on goal difference.