Linfield welcomed Derry City to Windsor Park tonight as the Blues’ defence of the Setanta Cup began in Belfast. It was the visitors however who had the best of the early possession, but thankfully with no end result. On three minutes City broke through the middle, but a well timed tackle from Jim Ervin brought the move to an end. The resulting corner was wasted to Linfield’s relief. One minute later Deery curled in a 20 yard free kick which went wide of Mannus’ near post.

Against the run of play, Linfield took the lead in the ninth minute. Bailie floated in a free kick just inside the City half. The visiting keeper Forde fumbled the high ball and Thompson hooked the shot home from ten yards. The lead however was short lived. McShane moved in on McCourt inside the box and seemed to make contact with the ball, but referee Adrian McCourt pointed to the penalty spot. Farren stepped up and just managed to squeeze the ball past Mannus’ outstretched hand and inside the post to pull the visitors level.

The goal and penalty seemed to liven up both sides, with play moving end to end. Murphy got on the end of a cross from the right, but his back post header was saved with little effort at the far post. One minute passed and play had moved to the opposite end of the pitch. With Mannus out of position, Oman found himself unmarked with an open goal at his mercy. Thankfully however the City player could only head over the bar from nine yards.

Just after the half hour O’Flynn found himself in space on the left. Ervin did well to force the City player wide, although he still managed to fire in a shot which went just high and wide from nine yards. On 43 minutes Kearney came to Linfield’s rescue when he made a goal-line clearance as Oman shot from eight yards.

Half time arrived; probably more to the relief of the Linfield players as City were definitely in the ascendancy in front of 3800 supporters, of which 800 were in the North Stand.

HALF TIME: LINFIELD 1-1 DERRY CITY

The second half began with Linfield playing better than City. On 52 minutes Paul McAreavey broke in the box and it looked as though he was obstructed first of all before being pulled down by the keeper, defender or both. Referee Adrian McCourt continued to frustrate Linfield supporters as he ignored the fouls. On 61 minutes as Gault went to take a throw in on the left Deery put his hands up and knocked the ball from Gault’s. Would someone please define obstruction for me? Referee McCourt obviously thought it wasn’t as he failed to show Deery a yellow card.

On 68 minutes McCourt played the ball across the face of goal from the right. Much to Linfield’s relief Gault was alert at the far post and even though it looked as if he had scored an own goal, the ball went behind for a corner. City started to gain in confidence and posed more of a threat to Linfield. Thankfully the offside rule came to the Blues’ rescue on more than one occasion.

With 12 minutes to go Linfield were awarded a free kick on the left. Mouncey stepped up to hit an in-swinger, but the keeper just beat the Linfield strikers to it and punched the ball clear. Just for a split second it looked as though the keeper would flap. In the last minute McHugh thought he had scored City’s winner, but the flag went up for offside. In injury time it looked as though Linfield were again denied a penalty when Hutton appeared to handle the ball, but it was no surprise to the Linfield supporters that the referee waved play on.

It’s hard to sum up this game, but maybe one word encompasses the mood – frustration.

FULL TIME: LINFIELD 1-1 DERRY CITY

LinfieldFC.com Man of the Match: Noel Bailie (39%)
Runner-up: Michael Gault (28%)

More match photographs here