Shelbourne ... 1 Bohemians ... 2 Two first-half goals helped seal all three points for table-toppers Bohemians against arch-rivals Shelbourne at Tolka Park last night.

On Friday 13th it was nightmare stuff for Shelbourne, who despite a late, late rally, failed in their bid to close the gap on Stephen Kenny's unbeaten side.

It was a particularly bad night for Shelbourne goalkeeper Chris Bennion who gift wrapped the visitors the crucial second goal a minute before the half-time interval.

Having failed to gather a number of high balls all night he paid the ultimate price in the 44th minute when dropping a Damien Lynch cross onto the upright to leave Glen Crowe to tap home to an empty net.

Crowe's strike partner Paul Keegan had already put Bohemians ahead in the 27th minute.

But with 16 minutes remaining Shelbourne gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Wesley Houlihan's pass split the Bohemians defence for Richie Baker to calmly slot home.

In the closing stages Baker could have completed the dramatic comeback but Ashley Bayes made two superb saves to deny him the equaliser, while, as Shelbourne sought at least a point with that late rally, substitute Tony Sheridan somehow fired over an empty net in injury time as Bohemians after three successive draws secured their first league win since August 2nd.

Fireworks had been the order of the day when these two sides met last season.

Three league games had provided no less than 15 goals including a 6-4 victory for Shelbourne and a 4-0 win for Bohemians.

So maybe last night's sizeable attendance came to Tolka Park expecting more of the same.

And any latecomers could easily have missed a couple of quick-fire goals, as both sides could quite easily have scored within the first two minutes.

In a lightning start Keegan did actually have the ball in the back of the net after just 90 seconds only to be denied by an offside flag.

Almost immediately Shelbourne broke to the other end and Stephen Geoghegan was clean through on goal. His shot with the outside of his boot beat Bayes in the Bohemians goal but amazingly hit the inside of the upright before bouncing along the goal-line before spinning out wide just past the other post.

As a start it couldn't get much better and in the ninth minute Geoghegan then turned provider for Houlihan who, having beaten the offside trap, failed to convert his chance.

However, despite the frantic opening period of goalmouth activity the crowd had to wait until the 27th minute for the opening goal of the game.

And it fell to the visitors as former Shelbourne star Mark Rutherford waltzed through the home-side's defence. His shot was only parried by Bennion leaving Keegan unmarked to convert to an empty net.

Then in injury-time came Bennion's howler which led to Crowe making it 2-0.

Although Baker managed to reduce the deficit in the second-half the home side were unable to complete their comeback.

Shelbourne: Bennion; Heary, Crawley, McCarthy, Doherty; Gannon, Cahill; S Byrne, Houlihan, Geoghegan, R Baker, Subs: D Byrne for Heary (51 mins), Sheridan for Geoghegan (58 mins), Roberts for Doherty (86 mins)

Bohemians: Bayes; Lynch, Webb, Hunt, Coughlan; McNally, Ryan; Caffrey, Keegan, Crowe, Rutherford, Subs: Harkin for Ryan (77 mins), O'Neill for Keegan (86 mins),

Referee: H Whoriskey (Meath)