Bohemians bounce back

Finn Harps - 1 Bohemians - 3: Bohemians scored three goals in a league game for the first time this season as they bounced back from last week's defeat against Cork City by outplaying struggling Finn Harps in Ballybofey on Saturday night.

This was Bohemians' sixth win in seven outings and although they are 12 points behind league leaders Cork, they have games in hand on all the sides above them and cannot be discounted in the race for the title.

"Finn Park is always a difficult place to come to and I would have been quite happy to get a 1-0 win, but the most pleasing thing was we got three goals," said player-manager Gareth Farrelly, who added: "We know we have to produce the goods week-in, week-out and there is still a long way to go and we just have to keep pushing."

Ironically, it was Donegal native and former Harps player Fergal Harkin who had a major hand in condemning Harps to their fifth home defeat of the campaign.

The midfielder opened the scoring after only seven minutes from just inside the box as Bohemians threatened to completely brush Felix Healy's relegation-threatened team aside.

Dominic Foley was inches away with a header from getting a second, but Harps got a real break when star striker Kevin McHugh banged in an equaliser from the edge of the box on 17 minutes. But it was a false dawn for the home side, who had to call upon goalkeeper Gavin Cullen to make two decent stops to deny Foley before the interval.

Bohemians were then awarded a penalty in the first minute of the second half as Eloka Asokuh impeded Tony Grant and Foley stepped up to crash home his fourth goal of the season.

With Kevin Hunt dictating in midfield, Bohemians were never in danger of throwing away their lead and Harkin wrapped it up on 72 minutes as he ghosted past the Harps defence.

FINN HARPS: Cullen; Rossiter, Minnock, Boyle, Asokuh, Capper, Lauchlan, McGrenaghan, Breen, McHugh, Gorman. Subs: Scoltock for Asokuh (61 mins), Funston for Capper (73 mins).

BOHEMIANS: Gregg; Rice, Hunt, Harkin, Farrelly, Foley, Grant, Ward, Keddy, Conway, Oman. Sub: Kelly for Grant (90 mins).

Referee: Ian Stokes (Dublin).