Ronan Hale nets winner in Belarus but Derry City bow out of Europe

Derry's Aaron Splaine with Alyaksandr Sachywka of Dinamo Minsk.

KENNY SHIELS' brave Derry City side produced a heroic performance to clinch an unlikely victory over Dinamo Minsk in Belarus but it just wasn't enough to send them through to the Europa League second round.

Second half substitute, Ronan Hale netted a deserved winning goal on 74 minutes after All Roy had stunned the hosts with a seventh minute strike but it was Aleksandr Sachivko’s equalising goal on 28 minutes which proved decisive as the Belarusians scraped through the tie on a 3-2 aggregate scoreline.

So the Candy Stripes bow out of Europe but do so with their heads held high and Shiels will be hoping the performance can breathe new life and belief into their stuttering league campaign as they look towards a trip to Cork City on Monday night.

Shiels made one enforced change to the team which lost the first leg at Brandywell with the suspended Conor McDermott replaced by Gavin Peers. The City boss, however, deployed a 3-4-2-1 formation with Peers joining Dan Seaborne and Darren Cole in a three-man defence with Jamie McDonagh and Ben Fisk offering support in the wing-back roles.

Dinamo made FIVE changes in total from their first leg victory including their goalkeeper, Andrei Harbunou who was replaced by Belarusian international, Syarhey Ignatovich and both goalscorers from the first leg were dropped to the bench as they perhaps underestimated the Foylesiders.

There was an estimated 10,000 attendance including Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko as the Dinamo fans turned out in force to witness the club’s long awaited homecoming to their redeveloped stadium after a six year absence.

However, the home support were left stunned on seven minutes as Roy breathed life into Derry City’s European hopes of advancing with a composed strike into the corner of the net as he took his chance brilliantly.