Derry City bounce back to dump holders St Patrick's Athletic out of the FAI Cup

Derry City empathically knocked out the Sports Direct FAI Cup holders St Patrick's Athletic, following a fantastic second half performance, at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.

Three second half goals from Danny Mullen (2) and Michael Duffy in the space of 14 minutes sealed the comfortable victory and Will Patching also missed from the spot, before the goalscoring had even started.

Ruaidhri Higgins' men showed great courage to bounce back from their Europa Conference League exit to part-time side Bruno Magpies on Thursday night, by putting on a tremendous second half display and in truth should have won by a bigger margin.

The visitors should have taken a seventh minute lead as Jake Mulraney got in behind the City back line to latch onto Brandon Kavanagh's clever cross, but with only Brian Maher to beat, the left winger failed to hit the target. Maher had to make a top notch save on 21 minutes as Mulraney's run and cross from the left found Chris Forrester at the back post, but the midfielder's first time volley was tipped away by the City shot-stopper.

A Patching corner from the left in the 37th minutes found Mark Connolly at the back post, but his downward header was cleared off the line by Anto Breslin. Derry missed a great chance to take a 48th minute lead from the penalty spot, after referee Robert Harvey pointed to the spot, after Carl Axel Sjoberg had upended Paul McMullan inside box, but Patching's resulting effort from 12 yards was well kept out by a diving Joseph Anang, the big keeper dived to his left to keep the effort out.

Patching went close minutes later when his dipping 25 yard strike, which had Anang struggling, landed on top of the net. Derry did break the deadlock in fortunate circumstances as Michael