BOHEMIANS have a crisis on their hands. At the Carlisle Grounds yesterday Maurice O'Driscoll hobbled off with a groin injury, thereby extending the number of injured amongst their first team squad to six. Heaven help the rest of them when Bohemians come out of this crisis.
It looked particularly critical at the Carlisle Grounds yesterday when Derek Swan was dismissed and Bray pegged them back to 2-1 before half time. Hardly. They pulled away, even managing to overtake Derry on goal difference and the joint leaders are now set fair for a summit meeting at Dalymount Park next Friday night.
Nothing seems to faze them right now. Jonathan Prizeman and John Ryan from the start, and Eoin Mullen before the hour mark, slotted seamlessly into the latest injury enforced vacancies. No one had a bad game. Even Dave Henderson made three high quality saves. Only a penalty, just, would beat him yesterday.
If Paul Doolin was the man of the match, then Brian Mooney wasn't far behind - the one biting into tackles, picking up the bits and pieces, distributing the ball sensibly and often breaking forward tellingly, the other mesmerising opponents and fans alike with visionary flicks, magnetic close control and dribbling, and a gem of a goal.
Bohemians look the strongest around at the moment, a point reiterated by known admirer Pat Devlin. For his eager promotion outfit, it had been a chastening afternoon on a sunny day in front of a 2,000 crowd - their best since the Cup semi final win over Derry seven seasons ago.
"But we're only new to the Premier Division. I mean, if this is what it's all about we want to stay here. Big crowd, good football, a few bad decisions but overall fantastic to be involved at this level. I would like to think that Bray Wanderers, in two years time, could be at the level Bohs are now," he said, ambitiously.
They had their moments, and would have made a better fist of it had Kieran O'Brien not directed a free fifth minute header too close to Henderson. From the sixth minute on, when Doolin pounced on a second rebound after Mooney and Swan had been denied by Pat Trehy and Bo McKeever, they only relinquished their hold through ill discipline for to minutes before the break.
By then referee Joey Casey had intelligently played the advantage law after McKeever clattered into Ryan from behind, booking the former after Doolin swept up the right and Mullen drilled a sweet 20 yard drive inside the post.
Much of what followed, sadly, showed how Casey lost his rein on the game. In the second of two off the ball tangles with McKeever, Swan was sent off for striking the Bray centre half after 35 minutes. Within two minutes Mullen was harshly penalised when an overhit Pat O'Brien corner bounced onto his arm and Kieran O'Brien converted the penalty.
Bohemians were losing their heads and dicing with further censure, incurring O'Connor's wrath in the process. But in time added on Trehy, even more harshly, was adjudged to have brought down Ryan in seemingly playing the ball and Tommy Byrne tucked away the penalty.
O'Connor regrouped his forces at half time, and extracted the sting from Bray. Bray pushed up as Devlin sacrificed a fourth defender, and Mooney began to revel in the extra space. On 70 minutes, he beat two men, lost the ball and then was tackled by Trehy when sent in by Ryan, only to regain possession, nutmeg Teehan and curl a rising drive around Trehy and above two defenders on the line.
As the chances increased at both ends, for good measure Mooney left two Bray defenders behind him, colliding into each other, before drawing a third and teeing up Warren Parkes for a softish near post 83rd minute strike. An awesome performance.
