AS BACKLASHES go, this one scarcely registered. Bohemians exorcised their humiliating 5-0 defeat to St Patrick's Athletic last week with a frustrating win of the narrowest kind over the team at the foot of the table.

Derek McGrath got the only goal mid-way through the second-half, but Tommy Byrne's missed penalty, soon afterwards, left the game on a knife-edge until the end, with Bray always capable of snatching an equaliser.

After a sluggish start, Bohemians, with two changes from last week, soon took total command, particularly in midfield where both flank players, Brian Mooney and Tommy Byrne, were enjoying an awful lot of the ball.

Thankfully for Bray, their goalkeeper, John Walsh, was in inspired form and he was called on to make three excellent saves before half-time as Bohemains threatened his goal almost at will.

The pick of Walsh's first-half work arrived on 27 minutes when a flowing Bohemians move created a chance for Derek Swan, but Walsh excelled to keep Bray in the game.

Bray might then have stolen a shock lead 10 minutes before the interval. Eoin Mullen fluffed a clearance from a Robbie Coyle corner, but goalkeeper Dave Henderson had little trouble with Ritchie Parsons' volley.

Normality was restored from the start of the second-half and Walsh again made a superb save to deprive Swan's angled drive early on.

Then, in a rare breakaway in the 58th minute, Bray should have taken the lead. Parsons forced an error from Robbie Best, whose clearance ran to Pat O'Brien, but his first-time shot went straight into the arms of Henderson.

The breakthrough for Bohemians finally came on 64 minutes from a well-worked move down the right between McGrath and Swan. Swan let fly from the edge of the box, Walsh failed to hold the shot and McGrath shot left-footed to the roof of the net.

Three minutes later, Bohemians should have killed the game off but Byrne cracked a penalty off the crossbar after Swan had been impeded by Ally Smyth.

Each side then wasted good opportunities before the end. Bray substitute Dom Tierney blasted over when he should have done better and Mooney, at the other end, also failed to hit the target when he was in a good position to do so.