Bohemians...1 Longford Town...1A night to forget all round for Bohemians who started without their leading scorer, fell behind to an early goal and then lost their captain, Kevin Hunt, who was sent off shortly before half-time.

That they salvaged a point from a match that seemed destined not to throw them anything is testament to the champions' character. But their title hopes now look slim as they slip four points behind Shelbourne with three games to play.

Both sides rang the changes with Glen Crowe the chief absentee for Bohemians. His calf stain restricted him to a seat on the bench, so Robbie Doyle started up front with Paul Keegan for the first time this season.

That partnership appeared to signal its intent within three minutes when Keegan flicked on Damien Lynch's ball and Longford left-back Graham Gartland slipped to put Doyle in on goal. Longford goalkeeper Stephen O'Brien read the situation perfectly, though, and raced outside his box to tackle Doyle who then handled the ball on the ground to give away a free-kick.

If anyone over at Tolka Park thought Longford wouldn't be up for this game, given their season is effectively over, they would have revised that opinion as Alan Matthews' cup holders went up the field and scored from the first corner of the night on five minutes.

Despite other considerations to follow, Stephen Kenny would have asked questions of his defenders at the break as nobody tracked the run of Graham Gartland as he arrived to power a header to the net from Alan Kirby's crisp delivery.

It was a nervous, unconvincing start by Bohemians, and slack marking was apparent again as Shay Kelly soon had to make an agile save to prevent them going further behind.

A distinctly out-of-sorts Hunt gave away a clumsy foul out on the left touchline and again Kirby's centre had plenty of pace on it. This time Barry Ferguson got his head to it to bring the best out of the Bohemians' goalkeeper.

O'Brien was in action at the other end shortly afterwards to make his first stop, and a very similar one at that to Kelly's minutes earlier, when Doyle let fly with a terrific right-footed snap shot from 30 yards.

The effervescent Doyle was involved again as his header across goal from Lynch's diagonal ball was set to drop promisingly for the in-rushing Fergal Harkin, but Longford midfielder Philip Keogh got across to take the ball of his toe.

That signalled a good spell of Bohemians pressure as their first-half corner count would rise to 10, but tellingly they failed to make anything of them.

A frustrating evening then got progressively worse eight minutes before the interval when Hunt uncharacteristically went in on Liam Kelly from behind as Colin Hawkins's appeal for a handball by Ferguson went unheeded by Cork referee Anthony Buttimer.

Booked just four minutes earlier for a foul on Kirby, the mild-mannered Hunt had to walk for the first time in his five seasons in Ireland.

In no little disarray, Kenny's half-time talk worked the necessary oracle as Bohemians dug deep on their resolve and showed admirable character to get right back into the match within seven minutes of the restart.

A clash of heads between Ferguson and Dave Morrison resulted in a free-kick to Bohemians some 25 yards out and Doyle, availing of a slip on his line by O'Brien, curled his shot to the net.

Far from succumbing to Bohemians' revival, Longford remained well up for the challenge and they forced two late scoring chances.

Kelly had again to show his agility to touch away Kirby's clever inswinging free-kick. Substitute Eric Lavine then might have done better as he stretched to poke over the top from the hard-working Kirby's cross.

There might still have been some late, late joy for Bohemians, but O'Brien touched over Ken Oman's header from Bobby Ryan's corner four minutes into stoppage time.

BOHEMIANS: Kelly; Lynch, Hawkins, Oman, Webb (Caffrey, 83 mins); Ryan, Hunt, Harkin, Morrison; Doyle (Ward, 86 mins), Keegan (Crowe, 73 mins).

LONGFORD TOWN: O'Brien; Alan Murphy, Ferguson, McGovern, Gartland; Kirby, Perth, Keogh, Byrne; Kelly (Lavine, 62 mins), Francis (Barrett, 58 mins).

Referee: A Buttimer (Cork)