Derry City will welcome the three points secured over Shamrock Rovers at the Brandywell yesterday but the match will be best remembered for a scathing attack by the visitors' manager, Damien Richardson, on referee Hubert Byrne and the Eircom league.

Richardson described the league as "Mickey Mouse" after he lambasted the referee for his performance which he claimed cost his side dearly.

The Dubliner clearly lost his cool during the first minute of the second half when Derry broke the deadlock and five minutes later his frustrations were compounded when the referee refused to award his side a penalty in the 51st minute.

"We're playing in a Mickey Mouse league and I'm fed up to the teeth," he said afterwards.

"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," he said.

"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."

Following a Sean Hargan throw-in on the left in the first minute of the second half, Brendan Devlin helped the ball on with an overhead kick. And when the Rovers defence failed to clear, Darren Kelly lashed the ball high into the net.

And if Richardson was angry at that stage, he clearly blew his top five minutes later when Byrne refused to award his side a penalty after Kelly had lunged at striker Tony Grant. The referee decided that the defender had made clean contact and awarded a corner.

Peter Hutton, occupying a midfield role for this fixture, spurned two glorious chances in the second half while Robbie Horgan pulled off a magnificent save to deny Darren McCaul.

Derry made the game safe in the 86th minute and Hutton's involvement redeemed those earlier misses. Having skillfully powered his way through the Rovers defence from midfield, he drew Horgan from his line before unselfishly squaring the ball to Eamon Doherty who drove the ball home.

DERRY CITY: Payne, McCallion, Harkin, Kelly, Hargan, Doherty, Hutton, Hegarty, Gallagher, Beckett, Devlin. Subs: McCready for Gallagher (54 mins), McCaul for Devlin (67 mins), Parkhouse for Beckett (88 mins).

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Horgan, Smith, Cronin, Palmer, Woods, Robinson, Colwell, Kavanagh, Byrne, Grant, Francis. Subs: Deans for Robinson (63 mins), Vaudequin for Colwell (76 mins).

Referee: H Byrne (Dublin).