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19th February 2012 (Sunday)
Airtricity Under-19 Elite Division
St Patrick's Athletic 1, Bohemians 0
It was going to take something special to stop Bohs' surge up the Elite Division table, and sadly it wasn't a brilliant piece of play but a double dose of rotten luck for the Young Gypsies. Some might call it something else, but I'll stick with 'rotten luck'! After about 15 minutes keeper Craig Murray was given a straight red card; and St Pat's scored from the resultant free. That's all I can say as I missed that key incident, having gone to the AUL Complex as advertised only to find the match was being played on a back pitch in ALSAA directly under Dublin Airport's descending flight path. With no reserve keeper on the bench -- nor for that matter a bench -- Dan Byrne took Murray's place in goal. Not surprisingly knocked out of their rhythm, it took Bohs much of the remainder of the first half to adapt their game to the circumstances. For the second half though Owen Heary's young charges put in a quite magnificent effort to win this match, taking the game to the 'home' team at every opportunity. The players gave their all but their luck wouldn't change. Michael Scott, Conor O'Brien, Andy Mulligan, Jack Watson and Gary Caffrey all went close, as did captain Paddy Seery with a header or two. There were surging runs from each outfield player, while Dan Byrne, usually such a driving force in central midfield, was calmness personified between the sticks. St Pat's did manage to hit a post late on, but we reckon Dan had it covered! Bohs never gave up and deserved so much more than they got. Bohemians - Craig Murray; Michael Barker, Paddy Seery, Ryan Thorpe, Philip McCabe; Michael Scott, Dan Byrne, Conor O'Brien (77 Lee Lismore), Donal Coghlan (56 Gary Caffrey), Correy Davidson (56 Andy Mulligan); Jack Watson.
Thanks to first teamers Dave Scully and Keith Buckley for spotting this so-called reporter wandering clueless (no surprise there!) around the AUL's car park, and thanks again to Dave for getting us to the correct venue in two shakes of a cat's tail. Unfortunately the first sight we saw at ALSAA was Craig Murray walking dejectedly off! Murray, who has been having a superb season, will be sorely missed in the next week or two due to an automatic suspension, with Sean Dunne of Bohs' under-18 side likely to step up in his absence. [Report: Stephen Burke. Photos: A. Baldiemann.] 
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There were precious few other chances in this hard fought affair, though Caffrey almost had a second soon after his goal but was denied by a last ditch covering tackle.
