Bohemian Football Club Crest

@bfcdublin Two men saw red as Bohemians finished scoreless with Sligo Rovers in a game that took a long while to get going, Shane Quinn reports.

In the dying stages, Bohs counted on good fortune when Eoin Doyle cracked the upright after a superb solo move, and soon after substitute Christy Fagan forced Brendan Clarke into a fine one-handed stop.

Sligo themselves journeyed east to Dublin in excellent form, having won five of their past seven league games. Yet they had been stung in April against Bohs, when some calamitous defending helped the Gypsies to storm back to a 2-1 victory.

Further generosity from Sligo would have beefn warmly greeted by the home support tonight, but their recent results suggested otherwise. The league table, meanwhile, is looking incredibly tight with just nine points separating first place from fourth from bottom.

As the rain came spilling down in the early stages, things began glumly for Bohs. Fullf-back Danny Joyce, when contesting an even ball with Sligo skipper Richie Ryan, mistimed his tackle and made contact with his boot to the player’s ankle. With just seven minutes gone, referee Damien Hancock issued the youngster a straight red card, but Joyce’s cause was not helped by a group of opposition players swarming around him (above).

Glenn Cronin moved into the right-back position now and for a short while, the game became heated. Within minutes, Gavin Peers and Anto Flood were handed bookings by Hancock. But despite the hefty card count here, this match was overall not a bad tempered one.

The early gloom around the ground was then to lift in the 21st minute. Peers, an experienced defender, flew into another needless tackle when crudely taking down Flood outside the area. With Hancock on the spot, he dished out a second yellow card, much to the delight of the previously indignant home crowd. The Dublin official himself had an excellent game, getting the majority of his decisions correct.

It was Sligo forcing much of the play in the first half, and they looked especially threatening when Mark Rossiter’s pass back to Liam Burns was badly under-hit. Thankfully for Rossiter, keeper Chris O’Connor snuffed out the threat posed by veteran Alan Kirby.

Flood did test Brendan Clarke but the shot, from 20 yards, lacked the power to trouble the goalie. A serious facial injury to O’Connor (below, receiving treatment from physio Tony McCarthy) close to half-time, in which he collided with a Sligo man, saw the Australian replaced by Barry Murphy.

The Bit O’Red continued to look threatening into the second half. Alan Kirby, not for the first time, blazed over when the ball came nicely to him from Alan Keane’s cross.

Raffaele Cretaro came terribly close to giving Sligo the lead on the hour mark against his former club. Substitute and another ex-Bohs man Aaron Greene came up from the left-back position to deliver a ball Cretaro leapt well for, but headed fractions over.

Bohs were stringing together some fine moves as the game progressed, but a final touch or attempted pass narrowly failed to come off, meaning genuine chances were seldom forthcoming.

A brilliant piece of individual play by Eoin Doyle very nearly produced the game’s first goal on 78 minutes. The winger sped forward with ball, skipped past Liam Burns, before cutting inside and smashing an effort against the right-hand post.

That was a let off, and the home side responded on 87 minutes. Substitute Christy Fagan drew a good save from Clarke when the stopper got down to push one-handed around the post. Both sides left satisfied with a point.

BOHEMIANS: O’Connor (Murphy, 45); Joyce, Heary (C), Burns, Rossiter; Buckley, Cronin, Bayly, Brennan; Traynor, Flood (Fagan, 64)

SLIGO ROVERS: Clarke; Keane, Peers, McGuinness, Davoren (Greene, 49); Dillon (Russell, 64), Ryan (C), Ventre, Doyle; Kirby (Blinkhorn, 77); Cretaro

POSSESSION - Bohs: 46; Sligo: 54%.

ATTEMPTS ON TARGET – Bohs: 3; Sligo: 2.

ATTEMPTS OFF TARGET – Bohs: 1; Sligo: 6.

CORNERS - Bohs: 1; Sligo: 6.

YELLOW CARDS - Bohs: Flood, Traynor, Heary, Brennan, Cronin; Sligo: Ventre, Keane.

RED CARDS - Bohs: Joyce; Sligo: Peers.

REFEREE: Damien Hancock (Dublin).

Written by Shane Quinn