Bohemians...1 Shelbourne...2Heavy rain fell on Dalymount Park last night, and with it came a bad result for the Bohemians supporters. A Shelbourne goal in either half sank the league leaders, their first defeat of the season. All this in full view of one of the biggest crowds seen at their home ground in quite a while, and for the first time through the live TV3 cameras.
It was a disciplined performance from Shelbourne, one which has seen them close the gap on the league leaders to six points, and also opened up the title race for another few weeks at least.
And Bohemians can't just blame the conditions for their performance. They simply allowed their opponents to take control of the game at key moments, thus allowing David Crawley to score the opening goal from the penalty spot after 19 minutes, and also substitute Stephen Geoghegan to sneak in for the second some five minutes from time.
From the opening Shelbourne showed more intent to get closer to goal but, for all that running about, the scoring chances were scarce with Paul Keegan's 14th-minute effort for Bohemians from several yards out coming closest to an opening goal.
The first goal arose from an unlikely source. Ashley Bayes appeared to have punched a ball to safety but it came out to Ollie Cahill, who started to charge on goal again. In the process he was clipped by Glen Crowe, and rolled to the ground. Despite calls from the Shelbourne players that the incident was outside the box the penalty was awarded. Crawley made no mistake from the spot for his third goal of the season.
Not surprisingly, the goal ignited a little more fire in Bohemians' game. They controlled the ball for the next quarter hour, summoning more from Kevin Hunt and Fergal Harkin. Still, Bohemians failed repeatedly to get close enough to goal and went for a dry-off at half-time a goal down.
From the restart the momentum was back with Shelbourne and within five minutes Wes Houlihan drew saves out of Bayes. To their credit, Bohemians took the game to Shelbourne in the last 20 minutes but with five minutes left in normal time Richie Baker stole the ball on the run and slipped it perfectly towards Geoghegan who side-footed into the net. The only consolation on the night was a late goal for Glen Crowe three minutes into added time.
Bohemiams: Bayes; Lynch, Hawkins, McNally, Webb; Harkin, Hunt, Caffrey, Rutherford; Keegan, Crowe. Subs: T O'Connor for Lynch (61 mins), B Ryan for M Rutherford (67 mins), A Reilly for McNally (80 mins)
Shelbourne: Williams; Heary, Doherty, Gannon, Crawley; Baker, D Byrne, S Byrne; Cahill; Roberts, Houlihan. Subs: J Crawford for D Byrne (72 mins), S Geoghegan for Houlihan (75 mins), A Hesovic for Roberts (88 mins).
Referee: J Feighrey (Dublin)
