Bohemians 1 Shelbourne 1: In different circumstances a point would seem a decent return for Shelbourne on a visit to Dalymount, but after a late Damien Lynch equaliser gave Bohemians a share of the points in the first encounter of the year between the two title favourites Pat Fenlon's side will feel aggrieved not to have taken all three from a poor but passionate game.
Lynch's goal, the first the visitors have conceded in the new campaign, involved a touch so slight as to have been barely detectable, but the full back's insistence that there had been contact with Bobby Ryan's curling free kick was understandable given he had rashly conceded the spot kick from which Jason Byrne had given the visitors the lead.
For their raw determination to get something of the game the home side probably deserved their late goal, but there was little to cheer in terms of the football produced by either side on a night when avoiding defeat was probably the priority.
Bohemians started brightly, with their switch to a five-man midfield briefly looking as though it might pay dividends as Robbie Doyle and James Keddy swept forward from wide positions to lend support to Glen Crowe in attack.
The dominance, though, lasted no more than a quarter of an hour and yielded nothing more than a couple of hurried attempts on goal and a couple of frees for rough-looking challenges on Keddy and Fergal Harkin, the latter of which earned Ollie Cahill the first of the opening period's four yellow cards.
Shelbourne's first real move forward, on the other hand, produced something of potentially far greater significance as Shay Kelly clashed with Jamie Harris and ended up being stretchered off, to be replaced by Matt Gregg.
The former Bray Wanderers goalkeeper hadn't seen action in the league since July, but he was soon presented with a chance of glory when, after half an hour, he faced the penalty awarded after Lynch had handled.
Gregg went the right way but it wasn't enough. Byrne drove the ball past him to maintain his record of a goal a game since the season's start, while for Lynch the incident marked a second penalty conceded in two home games.
By then Bohemians had reverted to their regular formation, with Doyle joining Crowe in attack, and they started to exert some pressure in the final third of the pitch.
A goal seemed no closer, though, and with just over 20 minutes remaining Stephen Kenny again looked to liven up his attack by bringing on Tony Grant for Doyle while at the same time replacing Fergal Harkin with Thomas Heary in midfield.
Within a couple of minutes both were involved in a Bohemians attack that ended with Grant fouling Williams and Heary throwing a punch in the scramble that followed. In the face of calls from the Shelbourne support for the midfielder to be sent off, referee Damien Hancock settled instead for taking him aside for chat.
Though the quality of the football improved little, the pace at which Bohemians pursued an equaliser continued to increase and it arrived seven minutes from time courtesy of a long-range Bobby Ryan free which Lynch insisted he had got a touch to as it slipped past Williams just inside the right hand post.
The main stand erupted in celebration, Lynch looked almost as relieved as he did happy, and the Shelbourne players picked themselves up knowing that a good chance to strike an early blow against their main title rivals had been allowed to slip away.
Only time will tell how costly the two lost points will be.
BOHEMIANS: Kelly (Gregg, 18 mins); Lynch, Caffrey, McNally, Webb; Doyle (Grant, 67 mins), Ryan, Hunt, Harkin (Heary, 67 mins), Keddy; Crowe.
SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Harris (Doherty, 88 mins), Rogers, Crawley; Rowe, Crawford (Morgan, 66 mins), S Byrne, Cahill; J Byrne, Fitzpatrick.
Referee: D Hancock (Dublin).
Emmet Malone's National League column has been held over until tomorrow.
