DROGHEDA . . . . 1

(King, 88 mins)

DERRY City have, on occasions this season, displayed a susceptibility to struggle against teams at the lower reaches of the Premier Division table and so it proved on Friday night at the Brandywell.

Facing second-from-bottom Drogheda United, the Candy Stripes, sporting their new strip for the first time, failed to fire in the front-line and were caught out with a classic counter-attack with just two minutes remaining, having dominated Alan Matthews' side throughout the second half.

And it was ironic that the player who effectively broke Derry City hearts on the night was actually born in Derry's Altnagelvin Hospital some 24 years ago when his father was considered the ‘King’ of the Brandywell.

Right winger Brian King, son of Noel, the current manager of the Irish international ladies team, pounced in the 88th minute with a glacing header following substitute, Brendan McGill's cross. Derry City had sustained a sucker punch from which they were never going to recover.

Yes, it's been a bad week for Stephen Kenny's side with back-to-back league defeats. As a result, they drop down into third place in the table, seven points behind leaders Bohemians and two points adrift of Shamrock Rovers. Both Dublin clubs secured wins in their weekend matches.

It was a game Derry certainly did not deserve to lose, having basically owned the ball after the break. But, then again, they didn't deserve to win it either, as they failed to regularly penetrate a flooded visiting defence which battled bravely and resolutely in their search for what appeared to be a share of the spoils.

To be totally fair to the Louth side, their perfomance in the opening period suggested that they had travelled to ‘have a go’ as that policy has been serving them well - they went five matches unbeaten before Friday night's game.

Drogheda pushed forward at every opportunity keeping the home defence busy during what proved a lively opening period in which both sides had efforts which crashed against the woodwork.

Derry’s Mark Farren did well to get onto the end of a David Scullion cross after just four minutes but his shot dropped to the wrong side of the far post.

At the other end Drogheda’s Paul Crowley flashed a shot wide of the target when well placed, but Jamie Duffy really should have broken the deadlock for the visitors in the 12th minute.

With Derry failing to adequately clear their lines following a corner, Duffy was presented with a free header from six yards

but he failed to get the adequate power into his effort and Gerard Doherty was a relieved goalkeeper when clasping the ball.

Derry’s Gareth McGlynn was also unlucky with a speculative lob in the 22nd minute while Drogheda’s Shane Barrett smashed a shot against the post with a low shot six minutes later.

In the 44th minute the home side were presented with a superb opportunity to go into the break in the ascendancy.