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@bfcdublin Bohemians required a couple of late goals from Stephen Traynor and Robert Bayly to finally see off Douglas Hall in the FAI Ford Cup, Shane Quinn reports. Considering the Hall’s congested fixture list, they put in a fine performance on Friday evening before a dominant Bohs capitalised on their weariness late on.
 Two days prior to this meeting, the Cork side suffered a 2-0 defeat to defending champions Rockmount in the Munster Senior League play-off final. Rockmount are the club that provided a springboard to a footballer who would later become a Manchester United and Ireland captain, Roy Keane. The Mayfield man joined Rockmount as an eight year old in 1979, before departing to sign for Cobh Ramblers 10 years later.
The Hall’s inability to capture a first Munster Senior League title was a major setback in the little time they had to prepare for the Dublin trip. This year they will celebrate their 40th anniversary, having been founded in 1971.
For Bohs, the arrival of FAI Cup football brought a welcome distraction from the weekly grind of league games. To highlight how seriously Bohs boss Pat Fenlon was taking this competition, one only had to look at the strength of his starting line-up.
Anto Flood had a very decent opportunity to open the scoring in the eighth minute when Bohs won the game’s first corner kick. Flood’s strike partner, Christy Fagan, produced a good delivery, which “Bisto” headed a foot over the crossbar after being afforded plenty of space.
Flood, however, would make no mistake 12 minutes in. Keith Buckley supplied the cross, and with full-back Mark O’Callaghan badly out of position, Flood took a touch before burying his effort into the top-right corner. O’Callaghan had got caught much too far forward, and it is ill advised to leave a striker with so much space in the area.
The home side suffered a blow mid-way through the opening half when defender Ger O’Brien limped off to be replaced by Daniel Joyce. That was not the only injury Bohs suffered on Friday as Killian Brennan, pencilled in to start, withdrew during the warm-up with his place taken by Christopher Forrester. Joyce moved into the right-back position, with Owen Heary switching flanks to the left.
Having secured the game’s first goal, Bohs were growing dominant. All the early openings were coming Flood’s way as he flashed a header wide of the left-hand post from another accurate Buckley cross.
It was good to see that the Hall themselves were not lumping the ball hopefully up the pitch. They were keeping possession on the ground, playing the game as it was meant to be, which is tribute to the philosophy of their manager Phil Harrington, who won this competition with Cork City in 1998.
With Bohs surging forward, their opponents’ defence was looking very shaky indeed. The Gypsies have struggled for goals so far this season, and all that was missing was a killer touch to put the game beyond the non-league side in the first half.
The Hall’s winger, Derek Varian, was continuing to impress, showing good skill and pace allied to composure on the ball. Early in the second half, he dribbled past three Bohs players only to lose his balance when shooting. Such quality was later to earn Varian the man of the match award.
Aidan Price was causing the away team much trouble from set-pieces, with the centre-back unfortunate to see his header cannon off the left-hand post. The second goal, and the one to end any hope for the Hall, finally arrived in the 78th minute. The Munster club looked suspect from set-plays, and when Fagan scuffed his corner, it was inexplicably allowed to find its way through to substitute Stephen Traynor who finished from close in.
 Another substitute, Gary Burke, made an almost immediate impact when he crossed inside the box leaving Robert Bayly with the simplest of finishes past replacement keeper Daniel O’Leary (84). In the dying stages, the Hall understandably looked a tired outfit, but will be contented with having given Bohs a good examination this evening.
Written by Shane Quinn.
BOHEMIANS: O’Connor; Heary (C); Burns, Price, O’Brien (Joyce, 22); Buckley (Burke, 81), Cronin, Bayly, Forrester; Fagan, Flood (Traynor, 72).
DOUGLAS HALL: 1 Donovan (O’Leary, 82); 2 O’Callaghan, 3 Hackett, 4 O’Donovan; 5 Wilkinson, 6 Drennan, 7 Bruton, 8 McCarthy, 9 M. Murphy (Lehane, 85); 10 O’Connell (C) (Brohan, 58), 11 Varian.
POSSESSION – Bohs: 67%; Douglas Hall: 33%.
ATTEMPTS ON TARGET – Bohs: 5; Douglas Hall: 1.
ATTEMPTS OFF TARGET – Bohs: 11; Douglas Hall: 0.
CORNERS – Bohs: 9; Douglas Hall: 1.
YELLOW CARDS – Bohs: Forrester; Douglas Hall: Drennan, O’Donovan.
Referee – Rob Rogers (Dublin)
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