It’s As You Were In The Table As Saints Hold On For Draw

Bohemians arrived in Dalymount Park this evening knowing that a win over Dublin rivals St Patricks Athletic would take them top of the Premier Division, but also knew it would be tough considering St Pats hadn’t yet conceded a goal in the first 5 games. Bohemians nearly broke that in the 3rd minute, a free kick into the area reached Jason Byrne who put a total sitter wide of the goal, but it was a good start for the gypsies. 11 minutes in St Pats had the ball in the net, Brian Cash’s free kick got to Shane Guthrie who beat Chris O’Connor and put it in the net but it took a minute for the referee to realize that his assistant had flagged but there seemed to be confusion to whether it was offside or whether there was pushing in the box, but that was a big let off for Pat Fenlon’s men. Moments later St Pats did it again and there was no flag from the ref, it was a brilliant goal from Vincent Faherty, this was certainly a hammer blow for the reigning champions 1-0 after 17 minutes. On 25 minutes Bohs were given a lifeline Killian Brennan was fouled outside the box by Shane Guthrie who was yellow carded, Brennan took the free and was subsequently headed out by Gareth McGlynn and the chance was over. It was certainly a good tempo match after 28 minutes and Pats could have been 2-0 up, a wonder strike by Brian Cash only just went wide and the visitors looked like the stronger team in the opening half.

Bohs came out all guns blazing in the second half and Pat Fenlon must have given each player a kick in the arse leaving the dressing room for the second half because straight away Bohs were level after a fantastic goal from Jason Byrne after a nice cross from Gareth McGlynn which was his second goal in the league this season and Bohemians had become the first team to score a goal against the Saints this season. It certainly was a different Bohs side in the second half and only moments later from that had the ball in the net again, Conor Powel had a nice run down the left, then released to Jason Byrne who crossed it to Paddy Madden who put it in the net, some real great football from Bohs but the Linesman had ruled it out offside to deny Bohs the lead. It was clear that this half didn’t belong to St Pats as Bohs held most of the possession. Paddy Madden had a few more chances, more notably on 63 minutes, a shot from Jason Byrne came off the keeper and to the feet of Madden who kicked it over the top, from a Bohemians prospective it should have and could have been the perfect finish. It took Pat Fenlon long enough to make his first sub of the evening on 75 minutes introducing the man that scored the winner here against Linfeild, Raffaele Cretaro who relieved the frustrated Paddy Madden of his duties.

Bohemians: C O’Connor(GK),O Heary(C), C Powel, G Cronin, B Shelly, K Oman, G McGlynn, P Keegan, P Madden,J Byrne, K Brennan SUBS R Higgins, R Cretaro M Rossiter, M Quigley, B Murphy(GK)

St Pats: G Rogers(GK), D Pender, I Birmingham, C Kenna, S Guthrie, R Guy, B Cash, S Byrne, P Byrne, D Mulcahy, V Faherty SUBS D Lynch, A Williams, G Coughlan, D McAllister, D Connor

Referee David McKeon (Dublin)

Daniel "Pitchside" Pitcher Twitter: @DanFM104Sport About: Dan "Pitchside" Pitcher provides insight and commentary as the chief soccer and rugby correspondent for Sportspeak.