Bohs Left Shell-Shocked By Fingal Equaliser

Bohemians 1(Madden25)

Sporting Fingal 1 (O Brien)

Bohemians came into series three of the Airtricity League season on good form following their impressive 3-0 victory last week at home to Dundalk, while Sporting Fingal arrived knowing all three points were needed after their 2-1 defeat to UCD last week in Santry.  This was the first of two Dublin Derby’s in four days for the reigning champions as they travel to UCD on Tuesday evening.

Neither team showed any mix of style, quality or class in the opening stages of this game and indeed it was the 15th minute before there was a shot on goal, Ken Oman put through a lovely ball for Ruaidhri Higgins who riffeled a shot goal wards but Brendan Clarke was happy enough to see the ball go wide of his goal. Two minutes later Bohemians were gifted with a chance when Fingal’s Lorcan Fitzgerald brought down Mark Rossitter and conceded a free kick and was booked too. The free kick was a decent one from Higgins, he whipped it across to Rossitter but his headed attempt went wide.

Bohs were starting to pile on the pressure and it seemed like they were starting to take controll of this game, Conor Powell put through a nice ball to Mc Glynn who whipped in a nice cross to madden but his head took the ball just wide but the linesman’s flag was up for offside, you could certainly feel a goal was on the way for the gypsies.

The dreadlock was broken 1 minute after in the 25th minute after Maddens chance, Owen Heary collected the ball on the halfway line and chipped it down the right hand side to Madden who ran around Brendan Clarke who had come out of his goal and Paddy found and met the empty net 3 goals in 3 league games and his 5th so far in the league this season. Moments later Madden was on course for a remarkable second goal, he was just about to fire when he was taken out by Lorcan Fitzgerald, although the referee Derek Tomney saw it as a fair challenge, it was clear there should have been a penalty and Madden had to receive attention but thankfully was ok to continue.

The first half didn’t see Sporting Fingal threaten the Bohemians goal at all and certainly manager Liam Buckley wouldn’t have been happy going into the break but Pat Fenlon will have been delighted with the way Bohs started bossing the game despite it taking a good 15 minutes to do that.

Whatever Buckley did say to his team at halftime it seemed to have  an affect after the break with Fingal showing more intent to score and cause the champions a few problems. Fingal wernt without their chances 3 corner kicks in the space of 5 minutes was starting to cause Bohs somedefensive headaches but Barry Murphy was on top form with clean saves for each corner kick.

Fingal did have the perfect oppertunity to score 15 minutes into the second half, you would have bet your house on Conan Byrne netting from his shot but Ken Oman threw himself in the way to help out his goalkeeper, Byrne most definatly should have scored. Their first real shot in 55 minutes quite a shocking stat considering Fingal had done so well in their first season in the top flight.

On 68 minutes Bohs had the chance to put the game to bed and they really should have, sub Raffael Crettaro gifted the ball for Madden  who once again beat the Fingal keeper at the edge of the box but the ball hit the post to spare Clarkes blushes. Madden would have been sick not to score and how crucial that proved to be moments later when a backtracking bohs were caught out by Ger O’Brien who slotted past Barry Murphy who didnt know where he was to level the score for Fingal leaving all 1366 people here including fingal fans shell shocked.

Sporting could have won the game with three minutes remaining after Conan Byrne raced down the right hand side and with pace whipped in a shot to Eamon Zayed  but with the pace it hit his upper leg and came out of the box. Bohs themselves had a chance to kill it in the dieing seconds Madden was unlucky not to score when the ball landed at his feet but couldnt get a shot in.

A point was the best Liam Buckley could have hoped for, not many teams come away from Dalymount with victory. Bohs now travel to UCD on Monday and Sporting Fingal host Sligo Rovers also on Monday

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

Sporting Fingal: B Clarke(GK), G O’Brien, L Fitzgerald, S Williams, C James, K Browne, C Byrne, R Finn, G Crowe, A Kirby, S Mc Faul SUBS; B Gannon, K Quinn, K, Dawson, D Quigley, E Zayed

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