Derry were held to a frustrating draw by bottom side Cork City
Derry City were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw by bottom of the table Cork City in their League of Ireland Premier Division encounter at Brandywell.
Tiernan Lynch's side are now winless in their last four league games as lowly Cork picked up only their third point on the road this season.
The Candystripes move up to second in the league table with the draw, level on points with Bohemians, but they have played one game more than the Dublin club.
Cork remain rooted to the bottom of the league and are now seven points behind ninth placed Sligo Rovers with nine league games left to play.
Both sides will take a break from league action next weekend with attention turning to the last 16 of the FAI Cup.
Derry host Drogheda United in a repeat of last year's decider won by the County Louth side while, Cork host Waterford in an all-Munster tie.
Derry fail to threaten as Cork grab valuable point
Across the first half Cork limited the home side to little in the way of chances in front of goal.
Derry's first chance came on 25 minutes as Gavin Whyte whipped in a cross from the left which had Cork goalkeeper Conor Brann scrambling, but Adam O'Reilly could only head wide at the back-post.
Minutes later, Whyte again was the creator as he beat a few defenders before cutting the ball back to Liam Boyce just outside the six-yard box, but the striker failed to get an effort away in the congested area.
Before the half-time whistle both Mickey Duffy and Sadou Diallo had long-range efforts for the home side, but they did little in the way of troubling the visiting goalkeeper.
In the second half, Cork held firm and were full value for the point with a hardworking and honest effort, nullifying the Candystripes to virtually no efforts on goal across the second half.
The final whistle was greeted by some boos from the home support.
