Premier Division: Derry City 5-1 Bray Wanderers

Rory Patterson scored his first goal of the season for Derry

Derry City scored five goals at the Brandywell for the second game in a row as they beat Bray Wanderers 5-1 in the Premier Division on Friday night.

Having seen off Limerick 5-0 on Monday, Rory Patterson's first goal of the season saw the hosts lead at the break.

Nicky Low was sent-off early in the second half but a Ronan Curtis strike, Aaron McEneff's penalty and Ronan Hale's goal made it 4-0 to Derry City.

Sean Heaney headed in for Bray but substitute David Hopkirk poked home.

Following a slow start to the season, the Candystripes have now won three and lost three of their opening six league fixtures.

Kenny Shiels' side move up to fifth in the league standings, while Bray remain rooted to the bottom with a single point from their first six fixtures.

International call-ups mean Derry's scheduled games against Dundalk and Cork City next week have been put back to May and June respectively, so their next Premier Division contest will be the home match against St Patrick's Athletic on 30 March.

Low's left-foot shot took a heavy deflection off Patterson and the ball trickled past goalkeeper Aaron Dillon to make it 1-0 in the 15th minute.

Dillon made fine saves from McEneff and Curtis in the first half and his side found themselves a player to the good 10 minutes after the interval when Low was red-carded for a challenge on Darragh Noone.

Curtis doubled the home side's advantage on the hour mark when Conor McDermott provided the pass for Curtis, who netted with a right-foot effort over the head of Dillon.

McEneff fired home from the spot three minutes later and then Hale continued his impressive start to the season by slotting into the bottom right-hand corner 13 minutes from time.

Heaney headed in unchallenged over Doherty for a consolation, before Hopkirk met McDermott's cross to score with his first kick on his debut in the 88th minute.