Michael Duffy and Daniel Mullen on target as Derry City knock Shelbourne out of the Cup

Derry City produced a dominating Sports Direct FAI Cup performance to deservedly see off league leaders Shelbourne at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.

Goals from Michael Duffy and man of the match Daniel Mullen booked City's semi-final place, and in truth, should have won by a bigger margin against Damien Duff's side.

City made two changes to their starting line-up from the side which lost at Galway United a few weeks ago, with Ben Doherty replacing Shane McEleney while up top, Mullen came in for the out-of-form Pat Hoban.

As for Shels, they also made a double change to their team which drew at Bohemians last Friday, with Kameron Ledwidge and John O'Sullivan replacing Sean Gannon and Evan McCaffrey.

City created a super chance after two minutes as Paul McMullan's defence-splitting pass found Will Patching, but after getting in behind the Shels defence, the midfielder blasted over from the edge of the box.

Derry again won possession high up the pitch, this time Mullen nipped in to clip the ball away from Shane Griffin to release McMullan, but the winger's shot was saved by a diving Conor Kearns.

The home side deservedly took the lead on 23 minutes, following a fantastic passing move which was started with Adam O'Reilly finding Mullen. He cleverly dummied the ball into Patching's path, the midfielder picked out Michael Duffy and the left winger got half-a-yard inside the box before drilling the ball low into the bottom right-hand corner.

To their credit, the visitors should have done better moments later as Ali Coote's low right-wing cross found Aiden O'Brien, but despite finding space inside the City box, the striker's mishit shot was cleared.

Derry were inches away from doubling their lead on 39 minutes as McMullan's clever