Last night Dundalk thumped Derry City 3-0 in the SSE Airtricity League. During the game a collision between Dundalk's Pat Hoban and Derry's Ryan McBride left McBride down for over 10 minutes.

28' Hoban and McBride clash, McBride in serious trouble here, stretcher straight on. — Derry City FC (@derrycityfc) April 7, 2014

Applause from players, both benches and crowd as McBride taken straight to ambulance after 10 min delay. — Daniel McDonnell (@McDonnellDan) April 7, 2014

Derry players were unhappy at the time.


29' Danny Ventre and other players were incensed by that challenge, but that was forgotten when the seriousness of the injury was noted. — Derry City FC (@derrycityfc) April 7, 2014



Roddy Collins went a step further after the game, making some serious accusations about Hoban's intentions.

“He done him. I believe he done him,”

So do you believe Roddy? It's hard to tell from the RTE Soccer Republic footage but it seems like a standard heavy striker v defender challenge. Hoban's a burly striker but he doesn't have a history of violent play. His only red card at LOI level was for 2 yellows in 2012 for Mervue.

Roddy Collins could be trying his trusted deflection technique to take the heat of himself after a bad loss. His Derry side have only scored 3 times in 6 games this season.

Hoban denied there was anything malicious in his challenege.


To say I went on the pitch to hurt some1 is beyond ridiculous contesting for the ball nothing more. Hope Mcbride is okay #speedyrecovery — Patrick Hoban (@PaHoban10) April 8, 2014

He was also on the end of some serious abuse from a handful of Derry fans.

@PaHoban10 How can u deliberately go out and injure a player is beyond me! Fucking joke u are!!! — Adrian McGowan (@AdzMcGoo) April 8, 2014

@PaHoban10 your going to get what comes to you ya dirty cunt and you fucking know it ya rat! — Dj Cookie (@iamdjcookie) April 8, 2014

Derry City's twitter account let us know earlier that McBride is still in hospital?

UPDATE: Ryan McBride is still in hospital in Drogheda under 24hr observation and will be assessed again by doctors tonight. — Derry City FC (@derrycityfc) April 8, 2014

So what do you think? Unfortunate accident or something far worse? Let us know...

Cover image; Paul Mohan / SPORTSFILE