Derry City lay siege to the title

SYMBOLIC, symmetrical and just about perfect. A locally-born manager guiding a largely locally-based team to victory over the outgoing champions with a native boy lifting the trophy and 6,500 locals there to see it. This is how leagues should be won.

Granted it wasn't a particularly vintage Derry City performance, but then again, it didn't have to be. They won handily anyhow, a carnival atmosphere sweeping, the Brandywell a full six minutes from the end, which for pessimistic Derry supporters was almost premature. Besides it was the culmination of 31 games, not 90 minutes.

Saturday night at the Brandywell confirmed not only what a vibrant part of Irish football they remain, but that they are the best team in the National League this season. The final table tells no lies, and certainly this one won't.

Enough of their enduring strengths were on display to carry them over the winning line. The stingiest defence around enabled Tony O'Dowd to keep his 14th clean sheet, with Paul Curran and Gavin Dykes their usual error-free, teak-tough selves.

Settled by James Keddy's 16th-minute opener, courtesy of a right footer (a collectors' item), Derry also demonstrated many of the visitors' traditional virtues in two titles this decade, unstinting team work and that oft-used footballing cliche about keeping their shape. Whereas Derry kept theirs, St Patrick's occasionally lost theirs, and the visitors' strategy of pushing up from the back always left them vulnerable to Hutton's runs from deep. Sure enough, the crowning moment could hardly have been more fitting either.

Three minutes into the second half, Liam Coyle turned inside his own area - danger time. A typically deft and precise through bail was timed to coincide with Hutton's advanced run from deep. True, Gary Beckett was clearly retreating from an offside position, but Hutton assuredly converted, his 13th goal of the campaign.

It's Derry's oldest trick in the book. Everybody knows it, but seemingly no-one can stop it. Hutton has been a collosus and while some locals reckon Coyle has had a relatively poor season I'd venture his has been the final ball for more than half of Hutton's goals, not to mention a few of the others. He still gives City an extra dimension.

After that, for all Eddie Gormley's gameness and the under-served control and speed of Martin Reilly, there was no way back for a limited St Patrick's. Hutton has perhaps been City's star, but essentially this has been a team without stars, which partially explains why they've been the best.

The cult of the manager may be over-played, but this title is down to Felix Healy in a big way. He has learnt well from his mentor, Jim McLaughlin, and dare one say it, but he has added his own attributes - the development of local talent most manifestly obvious in the patience he has afforded the richly-talented Gary Beckett a chip off the Liam Coyle block.

Feisty and prickly he can be, and not always the most gracious of losers, but what some perceive as arrogance may be the product of shyness. Above all, he is first and foremost a Derry man. Not many managers would agree to having his job redefined from full-time to part-time, as Healy has done. To deliver this title is the crowning glory of his career for reasons most of us will never understand.

"I think you would have to live in this place to realise that. I mean I was born over the wall here. I've got a red and white flag hanging out of the window tonight. My da has been blocked all week. To succeed in Derry as a Derry person is extremely difficult, very, very difficult.

The season-long pressures had begun to wane even before kick-off.

"I just had a feeling all day it was going to be our night," said Healy. Seemingly, so did everyone else. Knowing that the title was within their grasp from the kickoff without favours from elsewhere, there was, an altogether more positive air inside the Brandywell than had been the case in the draw with Shamrock Rovers the previous Tuesday.

The young following inside the well-populated "jungle" in the covered terracing, which swelled the crowd to 6,500, were in full voice from the off, from The Fields of Athenry to We All Live In the Brandy-Brandywell. For once, Derry didn't seem to think disaster was going to strike at any moment. They knew it was going to be their night.

It was a great night, a privilege to be there and shame on those Derry football fans" who watched Liverpool versus Manchester United, but didn't turn up at the Brandywell later. Anyhow, it was their loss. The post-match presentation and lap of honour may have been derailed by hundreds of over-exuberant youngsters, but it was pretty much a blemish-free night.

It would be a long night too, perhaps lasting a week or so. The club deserves it, and so does the town.