Bohemians' turn to wreck arch rivals' season

THE almost predictable irony of it all saw last week's league encounter turned on its head by this FAI Harp Lager Cup quarter-final. This time, another good-sized 4-5,000 Dalymount Park crowd saw Bohemians do unto St Patrick's what the latter had done to them seven nights previously.

Whereas St Patrick's scored early in the second half and absorbed the ensuing pressure to possibly scupper Bohemians' league hopes, last night Turlough O'Connor's disciplined hardworking team did exactly the same to effectively extinguish the champions' last hope of silverware this season.

It was hard on St Patrick's who played considerably better in defeat than Bohemians had a week ago and were always more willing to pass the ball around, even at the back, than Bohemians.

However, having had the better of an undistinguished first hall, they lacked penetration when behind for much of the second. But wholesale rejigging by Pat Dolan - two substitutions and three positional switches - eventually had the desired effect and a furious late assault saw St Patrick's hit the post as the Bohemians goal led a relatively charmed life.

Not that Bohemians goalkeeper Michael Dempsey finished on a particularly charmed note. After a clash of heads with James Coil he was attended to by six first-aid staff and Dr Bill Tormey before being stretchered off with concussion and a suspected broken nose after, literally, a four-minute injury time stoppage.

The tie ended with a converted goalkeeper, John Ryan, saving from the St Patrick's goalkeeper Brian McKenna as the champions threw everyone forward.

Thus, it was hard not to admire the resilience and resourcefulness of a Bohemians team shorn eight established performers as the injured Dave Henderson, Kevin Brady, Derek McGrath and the cup-tied Tommy Gaynor joined an expanding casualty list.

Though necessity is the mother of invention there were a few raised eyebrows over the make-up of O'Connor's untypically youthful selection. In addition to Dempsey's first appearance of the season, the 18-year-old pair of David Fairclough and Graham Lawlor were granted their full competitive debuts, with Lawlor partnering the 22-year-old Warren Parkes - making only his second full appearance.

Meanwhile, their most threatening player by far from last week, Derek Swan, was pushed to an ill-fitting left-sided midfield role while John Ryan was left on the bench.

This relative gamble worked to an extent, in that the all-action, head-down Parkes emerged as the game's match-winner, although it was as much the composed and steadying influence of Paul Doolin and Peter Hanrahan in central midfield which carried Bohemian's through a difficult night.

Indeed, some of their first-half football was made to look all the more pedestrian and limited by the visitors' ambitious passing game. One snippet, in which Brian Mooney, Peter Hanrahan, Mooney again and Broughan passed around in circles before Broughan's mis-hit cross, summed up much of their first-half display.

Admittedly, St Patrick's often played themselves into trouble, but still, with Eddie Gormley stylishly pulling the strings, three early set-pieces from the Inchicore midfielder saw Martin Reilly fail to convert Ricky O'Flaherty's flick-on when ghosting in at the far post.

A six-pass move after 17 minutes resulted in a Keith Long cross which had the St Patrick's strikers, extending the Bohemians defence. But Bohemians stuck to their task, Eoin Mullen making an excellent covering tackle on O'Flaherty and Dempsey coming a long way to bravely deny Martin Reilly.

Bohemians had hardly threatened but four minutes after the resumption Doolin and Hanrahan bided their time in front of the St Patrick's defence before Hanrahan picked out Parkes, who turned and shot low inside McKenna's left upright from the edge of the area.

Parkes blazed into the Shed after Mick Moody's misdirected header, Mooney tested McKenna and a swift 74th-minute counter-attack saw Lawlor's point-blank header from a Mooney cross brilliantly turned away one-handed by McKenna as Bohemians remained in control.

Gradually St Patrick's built up a head of steam, Johnny Glynn challenging Dempsey to a delicate Gormley free as the ball dropped invitingly for Paul Osam who volleyed over in the 84th minute.

In the final hectic minutes, Jason Byrne shot against the bar when Mullen's rare mistake put him clear with time to spare before Johnny McDonnell volleyed wide, Fairclough cleared off the line from Glynn's near-post glancing header and then Coll almost headed into his own net in the collision with Dempsey.