Sligo Rovers 1 Derry City 0
DERRY CITY suffered their second defeat in a row, this time at Sligo Rovers, and fall right back into the relegation zone.
Worryingly for boss Peter Hutton it was also the second match in a row that they had a man red carded after Philip Lowry was given his marching orders in the second half following an incident with Raffaele Cretaro.
The home side seem to settle the better and they had the first effort at goal on 15 minutes when Jason Hughes' long range strike flew over Gerard Doherty's crossbar, as City failed to clear John Russell's initial centre.
Minutes later Cretaro's run and cross caused problems for Doherty and fortunately for the keeper Russell's header at the back post flashed wide.
The deadlock was broken on 22 minutes as Regan Donelon's in-swinging corner from the right was headed home by centre-back Tim Clancy, who easily out-muscled City defender Aaron Barry at the near post.
Derry suffered an injury set-back on 28 minutes after Aaron McEneff had to be replaced by Cillian Morrison after injuring his ankle.
Just after the half-hour mark a Barry McNamee chest down found Mark Timlin but his stinging drive from the edge of the box failed to test Rovers net-minder Richard Brush and flew well over the bar.
Although Micky Adams' side dominated things for long periods they nearly went in at the break all square as City started to get a foothold in the game.
A super run and cross by Patrick McEleney down the left found substitute Morrison, but after getting away from Gary Boylan, his well-hit effort from the right hand side the box was saved at the second
attempt by Brush.
Early in the second half Derry were inches away from equalising when Mark Timlin's long range strike, which had Brush beaten, clipped the top of the crossbar on it's way over the bar.
For the second game in a row City were reduced to ten men when Philip Lowry was shown a straight red card from referee Padraigh Sutton, for an off-the-ball incident with Cretaro.
In fact it was the the fourth official Robert Hennessey was the man who got the ex-Linfield man sent-off as he had words with the Clare official before the dismissal.
Rovers were went close to doubling their advantage when Morten Nielsen's 25 yard free-kick flash just past Doherty's left-hand post.
A slick City move on 74 minutes ended with O'Connor feeding Dean Jarvis, but the left-back's cross-cum-shot flashed in front of an unmarked Timlin and went wide.
In the closing stages a misplaced header by Alan Keane saw the ball fall to Timlin inside the box, but his shot on the turn was well off target.
The final chance of the entertaining encounter came in stoppage time after John Russell got in behind the City defence to latch onto Sander Puri's pass, but his low drive was kept out by Doherty.
Sligo Rovers: Brush, Keane, Boylan, Clancy, Donelon, Puri, Cawley, Russell, Cretaro, (Lehane 81) Hughes, Nielsen.
Derry City: Doherty, Cornwall, McBride, Barry (Quigley 87); McEneff (Morrison 30), Lowry, Jarvis; McNamee, McEleney; Timlin, O'Connor (Daniels 87).
Referee: Mr Padraigh Sutton (Clare).
