Bohemians 4 Cork City 0
The League of Ireland final standings tell no lies. Shamrock Rovers are champions for a fourth successive year while the also-rans failed to break the 70-point mark.
Derry City come second again, on 65 points, after a 3-0 defeat of St Patrick’s Athletic who finish third.
Until around 9pm, Bohemians had climbed to fourth but end up sixth behind Dundalk and Shelbourne.
The pecking order lent a subdued atmosphere to Dalymount Park as 4,083 supporters had to watch, listen or hear how Damien Duff’s Shels came from two-nil down, on the road, to beat Drogheda United.
It’s a result with massive financial reverberations. Roughly €300,000 and that figure only increases. As it stands, Shels will snatch the last European Conference League qualifier spot from their north Dublin rivals if St Patrick’s Athletic beat Bohemians in Sunday week’s FAI Cup final.
All is not lost though as Bohs can reclaim European football at Shels’ expense by winning at the Aviva Stadium.
“First of all I want to say sorry where we finished in the league,” said Bohs manager Declan Devine on the pitch at full-time. “But these players have given it everything, you [the fans] have given everything too, and that’s where we build.
“Shels can celebrate but we are bringing that f**king cup back next week”
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That broke the silence. Before the speeches, there came four tasty goals to end a thrillingly inconsistent season from Devine’s team.
Bohs had the lead inside 12 minutes. Danny Grant can claim his second goal since returning from Huddersfield Town despite a wicked deflection off Cork defender Sam Bailey.
Jonathan Afolabi made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time thanks to Grant’s lofted assist.
Afolabi was temporarily the league’s outright top goal scorer with a 14th strike inching him clear of Chris Forrester, Jack Moylan and Ruairí Keating. Moylan scored within three minutes of the restart, to make it Drogheda 2-1 Shelbourne, and so began a dramatic comeback.
Afolabi would respond but so would the Lincoln City bound Shels midfielder.
Cork City coach Richie Holland, fresh from his public spat with Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley, rested some regulars ahead of Friday’s relegation/promotion playoff against the winners of Waterford and Cobh Ramblers.
The Munster clubs clash on Saturday night at Turners Cross. Regardless of which team prevails, if Cork produce another lacklustre performance like this, Holland will be coaching First Division football next year.
By the hour, Bohs had a third. Paddy Kirk tried to claim it but Bailey did enough to ensure an own goal.
Afolabi slid his 15th of the campaign under City goalkeeper Oliver Byrne to make it 4-0. The 23-year-old was only denied a hat-trick by a slide tackle from Gordon Walker. That meant he must share the top scorer’s prize with Moylan.
BOHEMIANS: Talbot; Kukulowicz, Nowak, Byrne, Kirk; McManus, Clarke (O’Sullivan 73), Flores (McDaid, 65); Connolly (Coote, 56), Afolabi, Grant (Akintunde, 73).
CORK CITY: Byrne; Walker, Kravchuk, Hakkinen, Drinan; Murphy, Bailey (O’Donovan, 56), Crowe, Dijksteel (Kabia, 56); Keating (Umeh 75), Owolabi.
Referee: Neil Doyle.
