Sligo Rovers deservedly secured their first victory of the season with an impressive 2-0 win on the road against a lacklustre Derry City side.
Liam Buckley’s men were victorious thanks to goals from Kyle Callan-McFadden and Ronan Coughlan, and certainly seemed to play with more hunger and desire than the home side.
As for Declan Devine’s charges, they struggled throughout and never tested Rovers goalkeeper Ed McGinty during the 90 minutes.
The visitors took the lead on 19 minutes after Regan Donelon’s right-wing corner found centre-back Callan-McFadden, and the big centre-back rose unchallenged to head home from close range.
Rovers would have added a second minutes later as the dangerous Coughlan found himself some space inside the Derry box, but his low drive was superbly blocked by a diving Eoin Toal.
Derry went close to levelling things on 40 minutes, but Conor McCormack’s close-range strike was deflected wide.
Just before the break, Rovers felt they should have had a penalty, but referee David McLaughlin waved away their protests after Coughlan seemed to be upended by McCormack.
The Bit O’Red were awarded a penalty on 51 minutes after Coughlan, who was a handful all game, was brought down inside the box by Toal. The striker stepped up and side-footed home the resulting spot-kick.
McGinty nearly gifted Derry a way back into the contest on 70 minutes when he raced out to the edge of his area, but fortunately for the keeper Gerardo Bruna’s attempted lob into the unguarded net flew well over.
In the 90th minute, Figueira, who struggled for long parts, went close to grabbing a consolation goal. However his shot sailed just past McGinty’s right-hand post.
Derry City: Peter Cherrie, Conor McCormack, Eoin Toal, Ally Gilchrist (Mark McChrystal HT), Ciaran Coll; Conor Clifford (Jack Malone 58), Gerardo Bruna, Joe Thomson; Ciaron Harkin (Patrick Ferry 58), Walter Figueira, Stephen Mallon.
Sligo Rovers: Ed McGinty, Darragh Noone, Kyle McFadden, Garry Buckey (John Russell 73), Regan Donelon; Will Seymore, David Cawley, Niall Morahan; Jesse Devers (Darron Collins 80), Ryan Coughlan, Ryan De Vries
Referee: Paul McLaughlin (Monaghan).