Bohemians 1 Sligo Rovers 0:In terms of convincing the Dalymount faithful he is the man to lead Bohemians toward a bright new dawn, Tuesday's late comeback against the club's bitter rivals, Shamrock Rovers, represented an important boost to Sean Connor.
On a personal level, though, there must have been at least as much satisfaction to be taken from this, a hard-fought but deserved win over his former club, whose travelling fans made plain at every opportunity the ill-will they feel towards the Northerner.
Sligo started well enough but it was the home side who carved out the best of the early chances which came after nine minutes.
Neale Fenn produced a clever back-heel which rolled nicely into the path of Glen Crowe whose first-time strike curled past Richard Brush before striking the crossbar and flying away towards the corner flag.
Through an open and largely even first half an hour, it wasn't the only occasion on which Rovers were repeatedly guilty of slack defending, with Richard Brush kept busy by the failure of his central halves to adequately marshal Bohemians players as they moved into the box.
Jamie McKenzie, was then required to clear off the line after Fergal Harkin had skipped over a couple of challenges on the way to the edge of the six-yard box where Fenn seemed to take on responsibility for putting the ball in the net only to have the ball taken off his foot on the line.
Having seen his strikers miss the target twice in promising circumstances, John Paul Kelly showed he was up to the task of providing the sort of finish required to actually beat the goalkeeper a couple of minutes before half-time.
The midfielder mightn't seem the most likely scorer of a headed goal from 10 yards out but as he arrived late and unmarked into the Rovers penalty area, but Chris Kingberry picked him out perfectly with a cross from the right and Brush barely reacted as Kelly's header passed him on the way to the back of the net.
Always entertaining, the game became a little frantic in the second half. Without a recognised striker on the pitch until Choice Aisien's arrival on the hour, Sligo seemed incapable of mounting a serious challenge for an equaliser and went close to conceding a couple of more times, most notably when Fenn somehow headed against the post after sidestepping the challenge of Brush and holding off McKenzie.
Late on, though, the visitors showed a good deal of commitment to the cause, with everyone working hard to get the ball forward in an attempt to salvage something from the game.
Once or twice the Bohemians backfour even looked a little rattled but ultimately Rovers failed to carve out any efforts that really tested Brian Murphy and they could have few complaints about what was their second league defeat of the season.
BOHEMIANS: Murphy; Heary, McGuinness, Pooley, Byrne; Kingberry, Rice, Kelly (Hunt, 55 mins), Harkin (Rossiter, 69 mins); Fenn (Mansaram, 65 mins), Crowe.
SLIGO ROVERS: Brush; Coleman, McKenzie, Vasas, Foy; Manson (Aisien, 60 mins), Turner (McCartney, 86 mins), Hughes, Bajdziak; Cretaro, Kudozovic.
Referee: A Buttimer (Cork).
