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Bohemians shut the door on Hall

Bohemians 3 Douglas Hall 0: BOHEMIANS TOOK a while before they finally overcame a battling Douglas Hall side last night

Sat Jun 04 2011 - 01:00

Bohemians 3 Douglas Hall 0:BOHEMIANS TOOK a while before they finally overcame a battling Douglas Hall side last night. Goals from Anto Flood, Stephen Traynor and Robert Bayly sealed an ultimately comfortable 3-0 win in their FAI Ford Cup third round encounter at Dalymount Park.

After Flood had threatened on two separate occasions inside the opening 11 minutes, Bohemians’ top scorer finally broke the deadlock in the 12th minute when he finished precisely from 12 yards following a fine run and cross from Keith Buckley.

The visitors, playing their second match in 48 hours, showed tangible signs of fatigue, and their attempts at stifling their opponents by deploying a five-man midfield were undermined by uncharacteristically sloppy passing throughout the opening exchanges.

Flood should have doubled his tally midway through the half but headed wastefully wide from substitute Daniel Joyce’s excellent delivery. The former Shels and Galway United striker looked certain to score in the 32nd minute but hesitated, allowing defender Gareth O’Donovan to intercept inside the six-yard box.

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The half ended as it began with Bohemians threatening the Douglas Hall goal but Christopher Forrester’s snapshot on 45 minutes lacked sufficient venom to trouble Adrian O’Donovan, who gathered comfortably at his near post.

The second half continued in a similar vein, but a lack of precision in the final third by the Premier League side saw the non-league outfit comfortably repel Bohemians’ increasingly frustrated attempts.

After Aidan Price had rattled the Douglas Hall on two occasions within seven second-half minutes, substitute Traynor finally doubled his side’s lead on 78 minutes, converting with a neat finish from close range following a Christy Fagan corner.

Bayly got his side’s third goal five minutes later from Traynor’s clever cross to confirm a fourth-round place for the Gypsies.

BOHEMIANS: O’Connor; Heary, Burns, Price, O’Brien (Joyce, 21); Buckley (Burke, 80), Cronin, Bayly, Forrester; Flood (Traynor, 71), Fagan.

DOUGLAS HALL: A O’Donovan (O’Leary, 81); OCallaghan, Hackett, G O’Donovan, Wilkinson; O’Connell (Brohan, 60), Drennan, Bruton, McCarthy, Varian; Murphy (Lehane, 82) .

Referee: R Rogers (Dublin).