FAI CUP SEMI-FINAL Bohemians 0 Sligo Rovers 1:A SECOND-HALF goal by Gavin Peers steered Sligo Rovers into their second successive Ford-sponsored FAI Cup final and shattered their hosts' hopes of a second double in just three years.
Bohemians, of course, still have the big prize to fight for and Pat Fenlon’s side could yet wrap up the league in Galway next week if things go their way elsewhere.
They’ll most likely have to do rather more than they did last night, however, if they are not to end up empty-handed for they were well beaten here.
Sligo were comfortably a match for the league leaders during the opening half last night, exuding confidence as they pushed the ball around impressively.
At the back, Peers and Jim Lauchlan were well on top of things, while Joseph Ndo, even from the earliest exchanges, showed his trademark composure to hold off opponents while changing the direction of play and nudging those around him forward.
It took a while for their patience and composure to start paying dividends but when it did, Bohemians could count themselves lucky to get away with not conceding as Romuald Boco, another of the night’s strongest performers, was released into space by Matthew Blinkhorn, only to fractionally overhit his attempt to lob the onrushing Barry Murphy.
The goalkeeper stopped well from the Benin international not long after but his finest moment of the night by some distance came closer to half-time when Gary McCabe was allowed to work his way in from the left before letting fly and Murphy parried at full stretch before somehow recovering to stop a follow up effort from Blinkhorn.
By that stage a goal would have seemed a reasonable return for the visitors, who had been the better side in just about every department.
The locals had had their moments, with Rafaelle Cretaro forcing a decent stop from Ciarán Kelly and occasionally slipping past or between opponents but there was little really for Sligo to worry about in or around their area.
By half-time, the hosts had lost Mark Rossiter to injury, with the vastly experienced defender replaced by 18-year-old local Roberto Lopez.
The teenager coped as well as could have been expected but he’ll have been relieved to see the ball cleared behind shortly after the break when Blinkhorn had turned him inside out before having his cross touched on for Boco, who couldn’t quite get on the end of it to convert.
Seeing that his side were struggling to hold their own in midfield and failing to create anything of consequence beyond it, Pat Fenlon sought to change things by bringing on Mark Quigley, shifting Gareth McGlynn inside and leaving Cretaro to chase everything he could up front by himself.
If the extent of the manager’s hopes was to better contain the visitors then his intervention must have been viewed from the bench as something of a success but still Bohemians fell well short of matching the attacking threat of Rovers and with a little more than a quarter of an hour remaining, Fenlon completed the overhaul by sending Paddy Madden on for Cretaro.
Before the young striker had had the slightest chance to make an impression, though, Bohemians were behind. Sligo won three corners in quick succession and from the third, floated in well from the right by Richie Ryan, Gavin Peers produced a diving header that turned the ball almost perfectly between two defenders, far beyond Murphy and into the bottom left corner.
With less than 15 minutes to haul themselves back into things and save their dream of another double, the league leaders needed to step things up fairly dramatically but it turned out they had very little left to give and there was certainly nothing like the urgency or determination that powered them to victory over Shamrock Rovers a week and a half ago.
In the end, their hopes came to rest on a couple of set-pieces but each and every time their efforts were snuffed out by visitors, who remain firmly on course to go one better than last year in this competition.
BOHEMIANS: Murphy; Rossiter (Lopez, 34 mins), Shelley, Oman, Powell; Brennan, Cronin, Keegan, McGlynn; Cretaro (Madden, 73 mins), Byrne (Quigley, 52 mins).
SLIGO ROVERS: Kelly; Keane, Peers, Lauchlan, Davoran; Boco (Ventre, 83 mins), Ndo, Ryan, McCabe (Doyle, 87 mins); Blinkhorn (O'Grady, 90 mins), Russell.
Referee: A Kelly(Cork).
