Bohemians 2 Linfield 1:Bohemians will take a narrow lead into the second leg of their Setanta Sports Cup semi-final at Dalymount Park after Raffaele Cretaro struck four minutes from time to secure a home win.
The Irish League outfit had taken a first half lead through Mark McAllister who headed home Brian McCaul’s cross from close range after 16 minutes to round off a sweeping move out of defence.
Despite having rested several key players ahead of Tuesday’s big league game against Glentoran, David Jeffrey’s men then engineered a couple of half chances to double their lead but instead it was the locals who got back on terms shortly before the break when Ken Oman rose almost unchallenged inside the six yard box to head home Paul Keegan’s corner from the left.
The opening stages of the second half were tight with neither side able to gain a clear cut advantage. The Dubliners did most of the pressing but their opponents battled well in midfield and caused them quite a few problems on the break.
The game turned decisively in favour of the hosts midway through the half, however, when Marcus Kane was dismissed, a little harshly perhaps, for a second bookable offence after he had pushed Killian Brennan from behind when the winger appeared to step into his path about five metres outside the Linfield area.
The northerners were forced to reorganise and, while they created another couple of scoring chances, most notably Paul Munster’s narrow miss from close range after a fine cross by Michael Gault, they had to dig in a little through the closing stages.
Cretaro should have broken their resistance nine minutes from time when he was sent racing clear, but he saw his rather weak effort saved well by Stuart Addis. He made no mistake in similar circumstances a few minutes later, however, when a William Murphy error allowed Gary Burke to set the former Sligo Rovers striker up for the winner.
"I'm bitterly disappointed," said Linfield boss Jeffrey afterwards, "because you look for consistency in terms of refereeing and we didn’t get it today. It’s a pity for William Murphy too because he was a colossus for us over the course of the game but unfortunately when we would have wanted him to put the ball in Row Z, he didn’t quite catch it right.
"Still, we’re delighted with the result, we’re still very much in it (although away goals do not count double) and we’ll be very much looking forward to Bohemians coming up to us for the second leg in a couple of weeks."
Pat Fenlon expressed disappointment with the quality of his side’s performance and suggested that Cretaro might have had another couple over the course of the afternoon.
While the Linfield supporters had clearly felt that the striker had been offside for the winner, Fenlon insisted that other decisions had gone against his side, including a later offside decision when Jason Byrne had looked to be in with a shout of extending his side’s lead.
Bohemians:O'Connor; Heary, Shelley, Oman, Powell; Brennan, Keegan, Rossiter (Cronin, 64 mins), Quigley (Burke, 74 mins); Cretaro, Greene (Byrne, 64 mins).
Linfield:Addis; Ervin, Casement, Murphy, A Burns; McCaul (Tomelty, 78 mins), Gault, Curran, Kane; McAllister (Munster, 84 mins), Miskimmin (Carvill, 70 mins).
Referee:T Connolly (Dublin).