FAI Cup Quarter-final /St Patrick's Athletic 1 Bohemians 2:With a trivia trick quiz in mind perhaps, the TV people brought the FAI Cup along with them to Richmond Park last night.

This defeat makes it 46 years without a success in the competition for the home side, but if anyone asks when the trophy last went back to Inchicore, beware.

Nobody, it seems safe to assume, will be making light of the loss around Richmond itself for a while. A season that started so brightly was all but ended by Darren Mansaram's two goals.

There is still a place in Europe to fight for, but having failed to beat rivals who had been reduced to 10 men from just before half-time - in a competition already stripped of most of the obvious favourites - it's hard to imagine now how anyone around the club might ever manage to reflect on this campaign with much satisfaction.

Especially painful must be the fact that they appeared for a while in the second half here to possess enough momentum to go on and win the game.

Instead, after coming from behind, they conceded a soft goal against the run of play and could do no better than a couple of near things from set-pieces as they desperately chased a draw over the closing stages.

Bohemians may have still led at the break, but a first half that had started with a declaration by the two captains of their adherence to the principles of fair play, ended with a second yellow card for Dessie Byrne - the sixth and certainly the harshest to be handed out by Alan Kelly during 45 minutes of fairly frantic action.

It was a serious blow to a team that had done comfortably enough to merit their lead.

Though there wasn't much to choose between the sides in terms of possession, the visitors had managed to look more threatening early on, even if Barry Ryan really didn't have a huge amount to keep him busy.

Byrne, as it happened, had been the provider for the goal, but Mansaram's close-range finish on the turn was particularly impressive, with the striker making just enough space for himself while under pressure to push the ball past the goalkeeper and into the bottom-right corner.

Nothing else by way of first-half end product was nearly so admirable.

The two sides seemed determined to play the ball at a tempo that was fractionally beyond them and so, while there was certainly a sense of excitement, there were also countless poor passes as well as a succession of misplaced challenges that contributed to the high card count.

Bohemians have found goals hard to come by over the past couple of months, but the way their opponents were defending early on they must have felt that there were one or two to be had here.

They failed, though, to make more of their other first-half chances, most memorably when Mansaram narrowly missed an attempt to turn a Ryan McCann shot home.

The incident followed a scramble in which the locals passed up a couple of handy chances to get the ball safely away, but nobody proved capable of capitalising on the chronic uncertainty.

Then came the Byrne's dismissal and, after the interval, a spell during which John McDonnell's men began to push the ball around much more effectively.

Seán Connor had left his two strikers in place, but suffered from a lack of bodies in midfield, where the home side now started to outflank his men.

When Keith Fahey provided an equaliser with a neatly executed free from 20 metres the home support had reason to believe a winner would follow, but their confidence was to be short-lived.

Within eight minutes of Fahey's goal, Alan Blayney sent a long punt down the field and Glen Crowe flicked on for Mansaram.

The striker let loose from 25 yards and Ryan's attempt to get down was sluggish.

Ryan, understandably, looked dejected, but his team-mates set about trying to salvage the situation. In the end, though, they simply weren't up to the task.

Ndo, Fahey and Alan Kirby all had their moments in what proved to be a prolonged period of pressure, but Bohemians dug in well and ultimately deserved their place in the semi-final draw.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC:Ryan; Gibson (Brennan, 70 mins), Rogers, Paisley, Frost (Guy, 78 mins); Fahey, Ndo, Keane, Kirby; O'Neill, Quigley (Barker, half-time).

BOHEMIANS:Blayney; Heary, McGuinness, Burns, Byrne; McCann, Turner, O'Donnell (Rice, 66 mins), Kelly (Powell, half-time); Crowe (Rossiter, 76 mins), Mansaram.

Referee: A Kelly(Cork).