DERRY CITY struggled to break down a disciplined Dundalk defensive policy at the Brandywell, the share of the spoils denying Derry taking outright leadership of the Premier Division table.

But take nothing away from a particularly hard-working Dundalk who will have been concerned at losing the services of their influential centre-half, Colin Hawkins, with a hamstring problem during the early stages.

Indeed, with visiting keeper, Peter Cherrie, producing a top drawer performance in the first half in which he denied the home side on several occasion, Derry failed to sparkle after the break.

Cherrie actually pulled off a magnificent save after just 21 seconds when Stephen McLaughlin and James McClean combined to set-up Patrick McEleney, but the keeper parried the ball clear of his goal while at full stretch.

In fact, Derry may have owned the ball during that busy opening period but Cherrie continually dominated his penalty area to keep the home side at bay.

However, the visitors could so easily have broken the deadlock in the 21st minute, an incident brought about following an error by the home side.

Derry centre-half, Stewart Greacen played a poor back-pass to his keeper, Gerard Doherty, which saw the alert Keith Ward race through but in a one-on-on situation the keeper did well to block the shot with his legs.

Derry continued to press and in the 27th minute McLaughlin was unfortunate when his low shot from the edge of the area was driven agonizingly wide of the upright.

McEleney brought the best out of Cherrie in the 31st minute, the keeper getting down low to save well.

With the home side continuing to dominate, McClean drove a left-foot volley into the side-netting when he really should have done better.

And one minute before the break Cherrie came to Dundalk’s resue yet again when parrying a Ryan McBride header from close quarters following a McClean corner.

Derry may have dominated the play in the second half but they failed to penetrate a well disciplined defence with Greg Bolger and Stephen Maher sitting on top of their central defenders and that ploy worked a treat.

That said, lively Derry substitute, David McDaid, sent a shot wide of the target in the 77th minute when bursting forward.

And in the final minute of normal time, an Eamon Zayed effort was blocked on the goal-line by a defender as a frustrated home side dropped what could prove two vital points.

Zayed screamed for a penalty at that point, suggesting the defender had used his hand to block, but referee, Paul Tuite dismissed those claims and blew the final whistle shortly afterwards.

DERRY CITY: Doherty; McCallion, McBride, Greacen, Lafferty; McLaughlin (Deery 46), McGlynn, Molloy, McClean; McEleney (McDaid 77), Zayed.

DUNDALK: Cherrie; Madden, Bennett, Hawkins (Murphy 14) McHugh; Kearns, Maher, Bolger, Ward, Quigley; Griffin (Breen 77).

REFEREE: P Tuite (Dublin).