|
@bfcdublin Bohemians and St Patrick’s Athletic played out a scoreless draw in a tight, gritty Dublin derby on Friday, Shane Quinn reports.
Bohs enjoyed the better of the opening 45 minutes while after the break the Inchicore club came more into proceedings. Taking it all into account, a point apiece was a fair result.
For both teams, the draw was not a great outcome, but a defeat for either would have been a huge setback. 
St Pat’s left Dalymount Park having lost just one of their past 11 league games, but have claimed victory in only four. As a result, the Saints, like Bohs, remain rank outsiders to claim the league title. Bohs’ loss to UCD last Monday was only the club’s third defeat from their past 14 league encounters.
St Pat’s boss Pete Mahon could boast an almost full strength squad for the short trip north to Phibsborough. Liam Burns made a surprising return for Bohs from injury, but Owen Heary and Glenn Cronin were not so fortunate.
After the brightest of starts, and a succession of corners, Burns clipped the crossbar via a vital touch from a St Pat’s defender. A goal there would have been a big boost for the Gypsies, but the unfortunate Burns failed to claim a second goal of the season against this opposition.
The exciting Daryl Kavanagh responded for the visitors in the seventh minute with a long-ranger that skidded along the soaked turf into Barry Murphy’s hands. There had been a great deal of rain throughout Dublin, but thankfully little wind.
Kavanagh was again threatening, as he turned sharply before forcing Murphy into a fine stop from 20 yards.
After having a contentious goal disallowed, the cause of which wasn’t clear, Bohs had two players in Anto Flood (above) and Killian Brennan booked in quick succession for dissent. It was far from a dirty match but five players had made it into referee Richie Winter’s notebook in the first half. 
The game itself was quite open, with some good football being played. Brennan and Ryan McEvoy both had efforts at goal, but to no avail.
Bohs had just the better of that opening period, a hint of that being the fact the hosts had been awarded seven corners to St Pat’s zero.
A fine swivelling run from Stephen Bradley promised better than the midfielder hitting over from 25 yards early in the second half. The Saints were beginning to show signs at this stage of coming into proceedings.
Murphy was then called upon to produce an excellent diving save to prevent Brian Shortall from finding the net from a free-kick. Seán O’Connor went closer to scoring than any other player through pure good fortune. His attempted cross was wayward but it flew towards goal and hit the crossbar on 85 minutes. That was the final moment of drama as these two teams took stock of the result. 
Bohemians: B. Murphy; O’Brien, Burns (C), Price, Cahill; Buckley (Downes, 62), Forrester (Traynor, 90), Bayly (Hurley, 73), McEvoy, Brennan; Flood
St Patrick’s Athletic: Rogers; Pender, Kenna (C), E McMillan, Shortall; Kavanagh (D McMillan, 81), McFaul, Bradley, Doyle (A. Murphy, 87), O’Connor; North (Daly, 63)
Possession – Bohs: 52% Pat’s: 48%
Attempts on target – Bohs: 2 Pat’s: 3
Attempts off target – Bohs: 2 Pat’s: 2
Corners – Bohs: 7 Pat’s: 2
Yellow Cards – Bohs: Flood, Brennan, Bayly, Burns, Hurley Pat’s: Doyle, Shortall
Referee – Richie Winter (Wicklow)
|
