Derry dent Rovers hopes - January 22, 2001
Derry City 2 Shamrock Rovers 0
Derry scored their first win at the Brandywell since September (well, it was practically the first time the pitch has been playable since then!) - but referee Hugh Byrne made all the headlines after turning down a big Rovers shout for a penalty.
Hoops boss Damien Richardson was furious - and is almost certainly in trouble with the League over his after-match comments.
"We're playing in a Mickey Mouse league," he said, "and I'm fed up to the teeth.
"We have complained about this referee before and we were officially told that a gap of four matches would take place before we had him again. That has not been the case.
"I'll be instructing the club to lodge an official protest but I don't hold out any hope of that protest being acted upon."
The incident came on 51 minutes, just after Darren Kelly had given Derry City the lead. Kelly, now back defending, slid in on Tony Grant, but Byrne waved play on.
No doubt a penalty then would have made it a different ball game. But Rovers can't really complain. Peter Hutton missed two stone sitters for Derry after that and Robbie Horgan made an unbelievable stop to deny Darren McCaul.
Hutton made amends four minutes from the end when he set up Eamonn Doherty for the winner.
Derry City: Payne, McCallion, Harkin, Kelly, Hargan, Doherty, Hutton, Hegarty, Gallagher, Beckett, Devlin
Subs: McCready for Gallagher 54, McCaul for Devlin 67, Parkhouse for Beckett 88
Goals: Kelly, Doherty
Shamrock Rovers: Horgan, Smith, Cronin, Palmer, Woods, Robinson, Colwell, Kavanagh, Byrne, Grant, Francis
Subs: Deans for Robinson 63, Vaudequin for Colwell 76
Booked: Colwell
Referee: H Byrne (Dublin)