Patrick Hoban's late leveller keeps Dundalk above Derry

A stunning 93rd-minute header from Patrick Hoban preserved Dundalk's unbeaten home record as they denied Derry City the chance to leapfrog them into second place in the SSE Airtricity League table at Oriel Park.

It looked as though James Akintunde’s 12th-minute strike would be enough for Ruaidhrí Higgins’ side until Hoban popped up with his 135th goal for the club deep in stoppage time.

That denied the Candystripes the chance to close the gap at the top with Shamrock Rovers to six points ahead of their meeting at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium next weekend.

As it stands. it is Stephen O’Donnell’s side who are six points behind the league leaders, albeit with a game more played, but an equaliser was no more than they deserved after bossing the second half.

The home side settled best and carved out the first clear opening on nine minutes when Hoban released Steven Bradley on the right. The on-loan Hibernian winger then pulled the ball back to Joe Adams, whose effort struck Shane McEleney in the face and out for a corner.

A minute later Bradley was in the thick of it again as he was picked out by Greg Sloggett on the right but after cutting in onto his left foot his cross just evaded the inrushing Hoban.

The Candystripes then took the lead with their first attack of note on 12 minutes. Sloggett was caught in possession by Joe Thomson with James Akintunde bursting into the box before firing left-footed across Nathan Shepperd to the bottom right hand corner after Andy Boyle had gone to ground too easily.

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