Derry City returned to winning ways thanks to Kevin Dos Santos' second-half header, but in truth, Patrick McClean's defensive display sealed the points against St Patrick's Athletic.

McClean - who's older brother James stole all the headlines before the game following his remarks to Paul Kimmage surrounding 'men being weak if they go to therapy' - the former Glentoran centre-back was solid as a rock and produced another player of the match display.

The loss for Stephen Kenny's side all but ended their title hopes, as they now sit six points behind champions Shamrock Rovers, with just two games remaining.

Derry had a half chance on two minutes as Darragh Burns released Tyler Smith, but the striker's shot from the right hand angle hit the side netting, while at the other end Kian Leavy was denied by a super sliding block by Patrick McClean, after the Saints man had broke in behind the Derry back-line.

On 16 minutes the Derry fans showed their disapproval at Ireland international James McClean's recent comments about 'men being weak if they go to therapy' when they unfurled a banner stating 'it's not weak to speak'. Derry missed a good chance just after the mid-way point of the half when Burns and Smith linked up, but the ex-St Pat's man's tame 20 yard strike was saved easily by Joseph Anang.

Stephen Kenny made a double change just before the hour mark with David McClelland and Ryan Edmondson replacing Breslin and Aidan Keena.

Minutes later Zachery Elbouzedi's right wing free-kick found Joe Redmond inside the box, but the Saints centre-back was unable to get his powerful header on the target.

City took the lead on 62 minutes as terrible defending by Elbouzedi resulted in left-winger Dos Santos out-muscling the wing-back before heading home Burns' delightful deep centre. Moments later a stunning defensive splitting pass by Jamie Lennon released Ryan Edmondson, but as the Saints substitute was about to pull trigger, his effort was diverted away by a superbly timed sliding tackle by a back-tracking McClean.

On 75 minutes Saints substitute Ryan Sheridan showed lovely skill to skip away from a few challenges, but his effort from the edge of the box was straight at City keeper Tom Norcott.

The Saints kept pushing for an equaliser in the closing stages with McClean again showing great defensive work denying Edmondson for a second time, as the striker thought he was breaking through on goal, the centre-back busted a gut to make another top drawer tackle to clear the danger.

Right at the death Sean Hoare's close range powerful header was deflected off the line by City substitute Conor Barr.

Deep into stoppage time Norcott made a top drawer save to keep out Romal Palmer's close range strike and the Saints substitute side footed wide after Chris Forrester's follow-up corner had fallen to the midfielder inside the six yard box.

Derry City: Tom Norcott, Brooklyn Lyons-Foster (Conor Barr HT), Jamie Stott, Patrick McClean, Brandon Fleming; Nick Twisk (Cameron Dummigan 79), Ellis Chapman, James Clarke; Darragh Burns, Tyler Smith (Terence Doherty 85), Kevin Dos Santos (Darragh Markey 72)

St Patrick's Athletic: Joseph Anang, Sean Hoare, Joe Redmond, Luke Turner (Romal Palmer 75); Zachary Elbouzedi, Jamie Lennon, Barry Baggley (Ryan Sheridan 64), Anto Breslin (Jason McClelland 53); Kian Leavy (Chris Forrester 64), Anthony Olusanya; Aidan Keena (Ryan Edmondson 53)

Referee: Aaron O'Dowd