DESPITE his team having dominated the first half and switched ends while a goal to the good, it was difficult to watch Turlough O'Connor make his way back to the dug out for the second half at Dalymount Park last night without suspecting that he was fearing the worst.

In recent weeks his side have displayed quite a knack for self destruction with four defeats and five draws in 13 league outings before last night leaving them in need of a favour or two from elsewhere over the weeks to come if they are to overhaul Derry City by the end of April.

O'Connor would not have needed to warn his players at the break about the potential cost of another second half slip up, but he probably did anyway and for once they seemed to listen. The home side took up pretty much where they had left off by making the running after the restart.

Not that their superiority was exactly stylish. Through most of the opening period the ball changed hands more than a tightly wrapped package in a game of pass the parcel, and even the Bohemians goal was the result of a botched move forward.

Peter Hanrahan started the move in the 10th minute, but his cross was poor and Derek Swan's, attempt to trap it poorer still. The loose ball fell to Brian Mooney who drove it against the crossbar with his left foot. The rebound returned to Swan who this time set up Eoin Mullen's drive from a dozen yards.

A couple of minutes later the former Shamrock Rovers man went close to making it two with a looping header that bounced just the wrong side of the left hand post but that was more or less the home side's lot in the opening 45 minutes as their visitors opted repeatedly to send the ball skyward rather than to risk conceding a second goal.

When the teams left the field for half time, indeed, it was fitting that they did so to the theme music from Match Of The Day, for Harps are clearly fans of the programme's resident guru, Alan Hansen. "When in doubt, launch it," says the great Scot week after week of a Saturday night, and so well versed were the Donegalmen in this aspect of their game that the European Space Agency might do worse than pay a visit to Finn Park in order to see just how it's done.

After last week's defeat by Saint Patrick's Athletic, the Finn Harps manager, Charlie McKeever had declared himself satisfied with the way new signing James Mulligan had performed, but admitted that he had seen far too little of the ball to really prove his worth and, in game number two for his new club, precious little had changed for the 22 year old striker.

At the other end, meanwhile, Peter Hanrahan and Derek Swan were seeing a good deal more of the ball, but they failed to produce much by way of clearcut chances. Hanrahan did go close in the 59th minute with a shot from the right side of the box that Mullen might have turned home at the far post [but Swan had to content himself with creating for those around him, most notably two minutes later when, once again, it was Mullen who chipped just over. The Harps defence, however, were living increasingly dangerously and they finally gave Bohemians the chance of a second goal when Ramage brought down Derek McGrath on the edge of the area.

Tommy Dunne placed the free kick sweetly in the left corner of the net, but the two goal advantage was shortlived, with Harps finally beginning to push forward and finding the net themselves in the 85th minute when Stuart Gauld's floated free went in off the post thanks to a glancing header by Kevin Brady.

From the restart the Dubliners struck back. Mooney should have scored when he was put clear, but the winger slowed so much that Jonathon Minnock got back to tackle. Darren Nash's attempted kick out went straight to Mullen, though, and he fed Hanrahan who sealed a precious victory with goal number three.

A fifth win in 14 games, of course, is hardly the stuff to get the crowd nattering about a rejuvenated title charge, but then, even if they still lack the self confidence they possessed in abundance through the opening half dozen games of the campaign, at least Bohemians appear to be staggering off in the right direction again.