BOHEMIANS courageously bowed out of Europe in Belarus yesterday on the away goal rule despite a spirited rear guard performance against Dinamo Minsk in their UEFA Cup preliminary round second leg tie in Molodechno.

But Turlough O'Connor's side, despite being under much pressure throughout, were left ruing a bad late miss by the goal hero of the first leg, Derek Swan. That would have won the match on the night and the tie.

Having changed to a 4-4-2 formation for the last quarter, with John Ryan coming in for Padraig Dully to play up front with Swan, Bohemians began to make chances. And a quick kick out by goalkeeper Dave Henderson 17 minutes from time almost brought its reward.

Ryan cleverly headed the ball into Swan's pass to put him clean through on goal, but he lobbed the ball over the bar with only goalkeeper Vitali Varivontchik to beat.

Bohemians' makeshift back four were magnificent throughout with Eoin Mullen superb in an unfamiliar central defensive role.

Dinamo pressed hard early on but were continually frustrated by the Bohemian's rear guard, getting just one effort on target in the first half.

They did begin to get in behind the Bohemians defence as the half wore on, but were then found wanting in front of goal.

Their best chance of the opening half fell to Pavel Chavrov, who shot inches wide of the post, having been neatly played in by Vitali Volodenko on 36 minutes.

O'Connor took off the ineffective Warren Parkes, who was struggling on the right side of midfield seven minutes before the interval and introduced 20 year old Stuart Byrne for his competitive debut.

Bohemians didn't register their first effort on target until the 64th minute when Jonathan Prizeman worked a 1-2 with Tommy Byrne to force a good save from Varivonchik.