DERRY CITY will draw sustenance from this one for a long time to come. Looting Fort Knox is probably easier than extracting a point from Dalymount Park, but in do so, Felix Healy's remodelled young team demonstrated that, if nothing else, they're eager beavers.

They kept running, and they kept fighting, even if they were a little short in creativity. No one deserved the last minute equaliser more than Peter `Pizza' Hutton, the heartbeat of this team, who never stopped running until the end.

For Bohemians, `Pizza's' late delivery must have left a particularly sour aftertaste. They had been a minute away from preserving their 100 per cent record pulling three points clear and making their best league start in 15 seasons.

Played in blustery conditions with what must have been a light adidas ball (butterflies spend more time on the ground) in truth it had not been a vintage home performance. Defensive discipline had always made Derek Swan's 32nd minute opener seemingly sufficient to earn all three points, even if it was their only shot of the half.

Ironically, they appeared to have weathered Derry's huffing and puffing, and had been enjoying their most productive spell of counter attacking in the last 10 minutes. But on the balance of play, and for sheer grit, Healy probably deserved his late 41st birthday present.

Playing with the strong breeze behind them in the first period Derry hemmed Bohemians in from the start, albeit in an ominously undistinguished start for the 3,500 crowd. Derry, as they were throughout, were full of running from every position.

An honest young team lean hungry and sporting almost uniform short back and sides, one can see why Healy is discernibly fonder of this team than the one he inherited. Yet they could do with some of the previous generation's craft, and cried out for the vision and flicks of the injured Liam Coyle.

Derry made little inroads until Bohemians scored out of the blue. Mooney cut inside and Dunne failed to cut out his through for Peter Hanrahan, who shared in on goal, shaped to shoot and drew Tony O'Dowd to tee up Swan.

For much of the second period, Derry were met by a wall of red and black which forced them to shoot from distance, James Keddy hitting the bar with swerving 25 yard half volley, before Hutton and Tom Mohan missed the target.

Pretty much every run Derry made was tracked. No players made a mistakeable achievement in the conditions. As James Coll likes to remind this observer, there's an art to defending as well, Bohemians do it from the forward line back. Hence even their latest enforced adjustment, Eoin Mullen, moving inside to replace the injured Maurice O'Driscoll, failed to disrupt them.

You could sense Derry's palpable frustration, though the game never boiled over and, let it be said, was handled well by Dennis McArdle.

Eventually, Bohemians began to wind up their counter attacking game. A minute either side of the 75th minute, O'Dowd had to dive sharply to his near post in keeping out Warren Parkes' flick and then backpedal furiously to paw away Tommy Byrne's delicate, 30 yard lob.

Five minutes from time Mooney intercepted a crossfield ball by Ryan Coyle and released Parkes, whose early cross picked out David Fairclough for a 20 yard drive against the bar.

Undimmed, Derry's sheer will drove them forward again, Tony O'Connor seemingly saving the night for Bohemians with a late interception. But Gavin Dykes won the aerial duel to Keddy's corner, and Beckett hooked it across goal for Hutton to poke the ball into the roof of the net. Fair play to them.