Bohemians 5 Rhyl FC (Wales) 1:BOHEMIANS EFFECTIVELY booked their place in the second round of the Intertoto Cup when an avalanche of second-half goals by Jason Byrne, Owen Heary, Killian Brennan, Neale Fenn and Glen Crowe easily saw off Welsh League side Rhyl in Saturday's first-leg tie at Dalymount Park.
The second leg in Wales next Saturday now looks a formality. Pat Fenlon's team should then go on to meet either Fylkir of Iceland or FK Riga of Latvia in the second round. The odds would seem to favour the Icelandic side who had a 2-1 away win over the Latvians in the other first round, first-leg tie in Riga on Saturday.
Bohemians did not have it all their own way against the Welsh side, especially in the first half when Rhyl took the lead on 25 minutes. The livewire Marc Llloyd-Williams supplied the pass for Mark Connolly to fire in an angled shot on the right which Bohemians defender Ken Oman turned into his own net, giving goalkeeper Brian Murphy no chance.
Whatever manager Fenlon said to his team, Bohemians were a different outfit in the second half and were right back in the game on 52 minutes after a foul by Rhyl central defender George Horan on midfielder Stephen O'Donnell.
Jason Byrne's free-kick from 22 yards was cleverly curled round the wall of defenders into the corner of the net.
The home side were in front on the hour when a corner by Fenn was headed home in a packed goalmouth by defender Heary.
Bohemians then stretched their lead on 63 minutes when winger Brennan was taken down inside the box by Lee Kendall. Brennan took the spot kick himself cooly shooting into the corner of the net.
Bohemians' dominance continued on 72 minutes when a Heary cross was headed down by Brennan for the alert Fenn to loop the ball over the goalkeeper into the unguarded net.
The icing on the cake for the home side came nine minutes from the end when a quickly taken free in his own half by defender Mark Rossiter allowed substitute Crowe to race through the Rhyl defence and firmly plant the ball past the advancing Kendall.
"I was pleased with the result and with our second-half performance - but in the first half we were terrible," said Fenlon. "In the opening 45 minutes we played as individuals and never used our width.
"We have got to learn from that and approach every game the same way. It was a bonus Kevin Hunt got through 80 minutes in his first game of the season after injury."
Still two points clear at the top of the Premier Division, Fenlon now has to turn his mind to tomorrow's league clash with struggling Finn Harps in Ballybofey.
"It is never an easy fixture at Harps and I regard it as a more important game than Saturday's match against Rhyl. Hopefully we will have learned something from the game with the Welsh side."
BOHEMIANS: Murphy; Heary, Burns, Oman, Rossiter; J P Kelly, Hunt (Turner, 84 mins), O'Donnell, Brennan; Fenn (Crowe, 72 mins), Byrne (Mansaram, 79 mins).
RHYL FC: Kendall; O'Neill, Horan, Ruffer, Brewerton; Connolly, Wilson, Garside (J Kelly, 72 mins) , Roberts (Powell, 75 mins); LLoyd-Williams , Jones (Holt, 90 mins).
Referee: Jouni Hietala (Finland).
