DONEGAL men Conor Tourish and Ronan Curtis scored a brace each as Derry City Reserves overcame Swilly Rovers at Swilly Park.
Swilly Rovers 2-4 Derry City Reserves
Letterkenny man Tourish and St Johnston’s Curtis (pictured above) ensured that the young Candystripes followed Sunday’s 6-0 win over Letterkenny Rovers with another impressive victory.
The match began with the Derry men maintaining the majority of possession stroking the ball about the pitch while the home side maintained a solid shape trying to frustrate the visitors.
The Swilly defence was standing firm and keeping the Derry men at bay until a slight mistake in the Swilly defence allowed Tourish to close down the Swilly clearance.
The ball ricochet off Tourish and looped past the stunned Gareth Wade in the Swilly goal.
Swilly had an equaliser ruled out when Marty McDaid was adjudged to have been offside when he turned home a cross from his brother, Ryan.
Derry attacks came forward in waves throughout the first half and they doubled their advantage 15 minutes before the break when a mix up in the Swilly defence and a bit of good fortune the ball broke to former Swilly Rovers player Ronan Curtis who rifled the ball into the roof of the net.
Swilly hit back within minutes when the ever industrious Marty McDaid was brought down in the box for a penalty.
Dan O’Donnell stepped up for the Lennonsiders and coolly slotted the ball past Conor Brady to make it 2-1 at the break.
Swilly lost the services of Wade at half time due to injury after the Derry man failed to recover from a knock sustained in a clash with Ryan Curran in the first half.
Derry began the half in the same fashion as the first dictating the play while the young Swilly side stayed resolute until Derry made it 3-1.
Wade’s replacement, Caolan Bolton, could only parry a short into Tourish’s path and he fired home.
Derry pressure eventually told when Curtis broke down the left hand side and went one on one with Bolton before beating the ‘keeper with a deft chip.
Marty McDaid caused the Derry defence problems from start to finish and with 15 minutes remaining he ran onto a nothing ball up the field and eventually found Brandon Toye.
He found full-back Duncan Patterson and he produced a composed finish when he rifled the ball into the far corner of the Derry goal to make it 4-2.
Derry continued to try and break down the Swilly defence with Bolton denying them on countless occasions for the remainder of the game..
Best for Swilly were Marty McDaid and Shaun Crossan with Ryan Curran and Conor Tourish excelling for the hosts.
Swilly Rovers: Gareth Wade (Caolan Bolton ’46), Duncan Patterson, Dylan Hegarty, Ronan Sweeney, Shaun Crossan, Brandon Toye (Adam Salhi ’65), Shay Durning (Darren Dunworth ’75), James McCahill, Dan O’Donnell, Ryan McDaid, Marty McDaid.
Derry City Reserves: Conor Brady, Shay Dunlop, Gareth McFadden, Seamus Sharkey, Paddy McClean, Conor Tourish, Dean Power, Ryan Doherty, Ryan Curran, Ronan Curtis, Stephen Mills. Subs: Jack Blake, Matty Doherty, Rory Holden.
Referee: Marty McGarrigle.
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