Bohemian Football Club Crest

@bfcdublin Bohemians 1 - 0 Drogheda 
By Shane Quinn
Fourteen players may have departed Dalymount Park during the winter break, but a second league victory in succession sees Bohemians off to a perfect start.

Anto Flood’s solitary second half goal was enough against Drogheda United, but it could easily have ended in an emphatic win.

For the past eight seasons, Cooke was at the helm of Monaghan United, whom he steered to the final of the League Cup last year. Bohs’ start to the campaign has silenced, for now, those critics predicting a long struggle for them.

Bookmakers heavily tipped the home side to win here, 4-11 being the commonly quoted odds. With the Setanta Sports Cup out of the way, thoughts at last turned to a first home league game in the year 2011.

Mark O’Brien produced the game’s first moment of action when the visiting winger struck well from 25 yards with goalkeeper Barry Murphy claiming comfortably. With the match already becoming stretched at such an early stage, Christy Fagan and Stephen Traynor got in far too easily to worry keeper David Quirke, only not to find the target.

With the flurry of opening chances, Bohs were starting to dominate proceedings. Killian Brennan’s chest down to Anto Flood saw the striker volley a yard wide of Quirke’s right-hand post on 26 minutes.

Three minutes later and Quirke was called on to provide his first save of the game, and what a good one it was too. Fagan showed excellent composure to leave defender Alan McNally on the floor inside the area, and his ensuing effort was saved by the legs of the onrushing Quirke.

Bohs continued to create chances, and only for a wonderful block by full-back Philip Hand, Lee Dixon would have scored, before Aidan Price headed wide Brennan’s corner.

With the Louth club’s defence very suspect indeed, especially under set pieces, it would only be a matter of time before Bohs were presented with further clear-cut opportunities.

But Drogheda themselves, however seldom, had the capacity to trouble a hugely experienced and hardened back-line in Mark Rossiter, Owen Heary, Aidan Price and Ollie Cahill. The captain Heary had to produce a vital block to prevent striker Daniel Corcoran from at least hitting the target 51 minutes in.

But it was the hosts’ pressure that finally paid off in the 58^th minute. Mark Rossiter floated in a perfect first time cross. Flood delicately flicked into the far corner of the net beyond Quirke’s despairing glove.

Rossiter then very nearly added his own name to the score sheet on 74 minutes. The right-back drove through the heart of a tiring Drogheda midfield and belted an outstanding long-range drive, which Quirke pushed away one-handed.

Still, with a score-line at 1-0, a game is never safe. Bohs’ inability to stretch their lead almost cost them when substitute Colm O’Brien drove an angled shot that fractionally cleared the joint of crossbar and post.

To highlight the problem, when Fagan pulled the ball along the six-yard box it looked easier for Dixon to score, only for the winger to shoot wide of the post.

It didn’t matter in the end.

Bohemians: Murphy; Rossiter, Heary (C), Price, Cahill; Dixon, O’Brien, (Somers, 81) Fagan, Brennan; Traynor, Flood.

Drogheda United: Quirke; Gannon (C), McNally (Nolan, 66), Whelan, Hand; Freeman, O’Brien, Lester, McCrossan, McNamara (O’Brien, 70), Corcoran

Possession – Bohs: 57 % Drogheda: 43%

Attempts on target – Bohs: 7 Drogheda: 4

Attempts off target – Bohs: 5 Drogheda: 2

Corners – Bohs: 8 Drogheda: 2

Bookings – Bohs: Christy Fagan Drogheda: Gareth Whelan, Alan McNally

Sendings off – Bohs: None Drogheda: None

Referee – Richie Winter (Wicklow)