Sixteen-year-old Jamie Mullins scored on his full debut as Bohemians had to come from behind to earn a 1-1 draw with bottom-of-the-table Longford Town at Dalymount Park.
As manager Keith Long rotated his squad, Mullins was one of eight Bohemians changes from the side that started their Europa Conference League win over Stjarnan on Thursday, with winger Robbie Mahon, 18, also given a starting debut.
In an open game, Longford took the lead on 38 minutes.
Shane Elworthy got forward from right-back to arc a superb cross into the near post where Rob Manley arrived to score with a fine diving header.
With Georgie Kelly, skipper Keith Buckley and Andy Lyons on from the resumption Bohemians soon got a grip on the game to equalise on 55 minutes.
Keith Ward and Buckley were involved with Mullins taking the latter’s pass and slaloming through three Town defenders to crack a shot past Lee Steacy for a wonderful first goal for the club.
The result sees Bohemians cement fourth place in the table ahead of travelling to Luxembourg to face Dudelange on Thursday.
Despite this encouraging display, Longford, without a win in 20 games, slip eight points adrift at the bottom.
Cian Kavanagh scored a terrific goal as second bottom Waterford edged to within a point of free falling Finn Harps as they added to a bad week for Sligo Rovers, beating them 1-0 at the RSC.
Kavanagh collected a deflection off Sligo defender Gary Buckley to take a touch and find the top corner with a sublime drive from distance on 52 minutes.
David McMillan also scored the only goal of the game as Dundalk beat Finn Harps at Oriel Park on Saturday afternoon.
Patrick McEleney was the architect of the game’s key moment on 33 minutes, ghosting past several defenders to set up Raivis Jurkovskis to shoot.
Harps’ goalkeeper Mark McGinley succeeded in merely parrying the Latvian international’s drive into the path of McMillan who tapped into an open goal.
