Stokes's strike lightens gloom

For most of this game it seemed particularly fitting that these two were embroiled in a battle for a place in European competition next season. For a long time now our teams have struggled, usually without success, to score against opponents drawn from some of the continent's less fashionable soccer nations and, as it happens, these two looked well equipped to keep up the tradition.

Both sides had had chances to break the deadlock, the visitors on balance enjoying the better ones, but a combination of generally solid defending and some particularly atrocious finishing meant that it seemed as if another scoreless draw - it would have been Rovers' fourth in a row - was to be our lot on a cold and blustery night in Phibsboro.

With two minutes remaining, however, Paul Stokes stepped up to find the net for only the second time since his arrival from Cliftonville last summer.

The amount of space the striker was given as Marc Kenny slotted a quickly taken free kick into the box for him was remarkable, but the finish was good, Stokes chipping Michael Dempsey neatly as he turned towards goal. The home supporters had reason to feel aggrieved, for the hosts had had enough of the game to take at least a point. At the back, though, they had shown a tendency from early on to ride their luck, most notably in the first period when both Tony Cousins and Stokes were allowed to slip through the defence to go one-on-one with Dempsey.

Cousins drove his shot far too close to Dempsey, who made a solid but straightforward save while Stokes, who appeared to mishit his attempt on goal, beat the Bohemians goalkeeper only to see his attempt bobble too far to the right and off the foot of the post.

At the other end Derek Swan and John Ryan wasted what chances came their way. There were repeated switches of possession in midfield and a failure by either team to settle into any sort of rhythm.

That, on another night, might have been enough to upset the Rovers' management team. As things turned out, however, one suspects it won't have troubled them unduly as they made the short journey home.

BOHEMIANS: Dempsey; O'Connor, O'Driscoll, Mullen, Fairclough; Wade, Lawlor, Doolin, Mooney; Swan, Ryan.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Horgan; Britton, Whelan, Corbally, Tracey; Lynch, Colwell, Purdy, O'Neill; Cousins, Stokes. Subs: Kenny for lynch (70 mins). Referee: A O'Regan (Cork).