AIRTRICITY LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION Bohemians 1 Shamrock Rovers 1:THE FINANCIAL pendulum might have swung across town in favour of the team from south-west Dublin over the past year or two, but a rivalry as fierce as this has always been a great leveller and so it was no great surprise when last night's Dublin derby at Dalymount Park ended, like so many seem to, with honours even.

As it happens, though, Rovers only rescued their point in the third minute of added time but both sets of fans left with cause for some satisfaction. Despite having victory snatched from under their noses by Ronan Finn’s desperately late well-headed goal, the locals will have been pleased to see 18-year-old Keith Buckley mark his first and highly memorable home start for Bohemians with the goal that gave Pat Fenlon’s side the lead 17 minutes from time.

For the visitors, there will have been a good deal of satisfaction that by pursuing an equaliser to virtually the last moment of the game, their players showed the sort of character and determination that money simply can’t buy.

There’s the fact too that the comeback was completed with just 10 men as Gary McCabe was shown a straight red not long after coming on for something he said to the referee’s assistant. It was a slightly bizarre way for a player to get sent off in a game that had its fair share of flashpoints between the players themselves.

Having done well in midweek against a Sligo side that made the mistake of standing off them, Rovers found themselves coming under rather more pressure here.

From the kick-off until the break at least, Bohemians looked to possess the lion’s share of the urgency with Fenlon’s men pressing their opponents in every area of the pitch. The approach seemed to rattle the visitors who rarely showed anything like their normal composure on the ball.

The pitch didn’t seem to help at times, but the primary problem appeared to be the inability of the champions’ defence and midfield to move the ball accurately at the sort of speed they needed to in order to avoid being closed down in possession.

For all that, though, Bohemians generated little enough in terms of clearcut chances on goal over the course of the night.

An attempt to rerun last week’s Owen Heary headed goal from a corner was thwarted early on by Alan Mannus and the lively looking Killian Brennan had an opportunistic shot from the edge from the edge of the area.

Anto Flood put himself about to good effect too, tirelessly chasing down the balls pumped his way from deep positions and doing his best to bring Stephen Traynor into things while Buckley was replaced not long after his goal as the 18 year-old had seemed hell-bent on running himself into the ground

It took a long time for Mannus in the Rovers’ goal to be seriously tested and when he finally was he did well twice in quick succession before a goalmouth scramble he couldn’t get close to ended with the teenager poking home from a couple of yards.

At the other end, Rovers had actually gone closer over the course of the first half although their better chances had tended to be from set-pieces with two Conor McCormack corners causing the home side problems, not least when, 21 minutes in, Dean Kelly was left unmarked on the edge of the six yard box but headed over when he might have done better.

Oman has a couple of half chances too and, predictably, each failure was loudly heckled by the home support. Still, he looked a good deal more composed at the back than the locals after 32 minutes when Mark Rossiter was forced into a hasty back pass to his goalkeeper who sliced the ball high into the air.

Gary O’Neill was quick to pounce on the error but couldn’t pick out a team-mate with his attempted low cross and it fell to Heary to provide Chris O’Connor with a lesson in hoofing a ball away from the danger zone.

A rare attempt on goal from play by Rovers just before the break suggested they might make more of a fist of taking things to their opponents in the second half and so it proved. Michael O’Neill’s men upped the intensity of their own game so that the whole encounter became more frantic and increasingly entertaining.

BOHEMIANS: O'Connor; Heary, O'Brien, Rossiter, Burns, Price, Buckley (Dixon, 79 mins), Bayly, Flood (Lodola, 89 mins), Traynor, Brennan.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; Sullivan, Stevens, Murray (Kilduff, 84 mins), Rice (McCabe, 62 mins), Sheppard, Kelly (Dennehy, 75 mins), Oman, O'Neill, Finn, McCormack.

Referee: A Buttimer(Cork).