Bohemians - 1 UCD - 0 It may not have been as emphatic as the start made by the team generally expected to be their main rivals for the title in the months ahead - but Glen Crowe's first goal of the season was enough to give Bohemians a winning kick-off to their title defence.

Though the game took a while to get going, it was the home side that looked the stronger from early on, with Bobby Ryan, Mark Rutherford and Paul Keegan proving particularly effective as they pressed forward.

For just short of half an hour there was barely a chance of note at either end but the breakthrough might have come then when Rutherford's header was touched onto the crossbar by Pat Jennings or a couple of minutes later when Crowe's neatly sidefooted close-range shot hopped back off the foot of the post and into the goalkeeper's arms.

Paul Doolin's side came close to grabbing the lead against the run of play, however, when Gavin Whelan fed John Martin, who neatly pushed the ball on past Shay Kelly only to fire spectacularly over an empty net.

It was a remarkable miss but then all around him Martin's team-mates were blundering.

Repeatedly defenders trying to pass the ball short simply knocked it straight to a Bohemians midfielder, while the longer clearances downfield almost invariably fell to one of the home side's back four.

Their inability to retain possession more effectively always seemed likely to cost UCD, but when Stephen Kenny's side finally took the lead nine minutes before the break it was less a case of defensive sloppiness and more one of Crowe picking up where he'd left off just before Christmas when injury ruled him out of the championship run-in.

Keegan's headed flick-on set the 25-year-old on course for goal from almost 40 yards out and Crowe's control was exceptional as he sprinted into the box with Darragh Ryan on one shoulder and Robert McAuley on the other and then coolly slipped the ball past Jennings.

A couple of minutes later Keegan had a penalty claim turned down after his mis-hit volley appeared to skim the arm of Tony McDonnell and UCD survived to half-time without conceding a second.

When they returned, Robbie Griffin almost drew them level with a shot on the turn that flew a foot or two over Kelly's crossbar.

After that, though, it seemed largely a matter of time before Bohemians confirmed their superiority. The scoring chances which had come so freely in the first half, were by now almost absent.

Jennings did have to make a wonderful double save when McAuley came close to heading into his own top corner and Crowe beat his marker to the follow-up but the champions looked more subdued during the spell that followed, with only a couple of low shots from distance that skipped harmlessly wide to show for all their possession.

Fergal Harkin came closest to grabbing a second from just outside the area but as the game moved into its closing stages UCD had their best spell.

The goal the students needed if they were to salvage a point looked well beyond them, though, not least because last year's most consistent finisher, Keith Doyle, was making his debut for the home side as a second-half replacement for Keegan.

They could do with his successor emerging sooner rather than later but Doolin will console himself with the fact that there will be much easier places to visit between now and November.

BOHEMIANS: Kelly; Lynch, Coughlan, Hawkins, Webb, Ryan, Harkin (Morrison, 84 mins), Hunt, Rutherford, Crowe, Keegan (Doyle, 73 mins).

UCD: Jennings; Sullivan, McDonnell, McAuley, Ryan, Martin, Whelan, O'Donnell (Mahon, 76 mins), Cawley (Davey, 76 mins), Gallen, Finn (Griffin half-time).

Referee: D McKeon (Dublin).