LEAGUE OF IRELAND Bohemians 3 Finn Harps 0:WHAT WAS once a march by Bohemians towards this year's league title continued to evolve into a stroll at Dalymount Park last night where, after taking an hour to break the deadlock, goals from Jason McGuinness, Glen Crowe and Gary Deegan for the home side extended to 24 their unbeaten run in the championship and maintained their 16-point advantage over St Patrick's Athletic at the top of the table.

There had never, to be fair, seemed too much basis for confidence on the visitors' part as they travelled to Dublin for the game. Aside from boasting a long series of recent victories and similarly impressive collection of clean sheets, Bohemians had won the two sides' previous encounters by a combined total of five goals to nil and, perhaps most ominous of all, nobody has left for home after a league game since Derry in late April without having conceded at least twice.

Paul Hegarty's injury list looked a problem too, with top scorer Conor Gethins as well as Davy Byrne and Jonathan Minnock missing out, although there was some consolation in the form of a rare start by Gary Beckett, whose fitness problems over the course of this season have deprived Harps of sort of attacking guile and coolness they might often have benefited from over the last few months.

He showed what they'd been missing shortly before half-time here when he made time and space for himself to have a shot from long range that clattered the top of the crossbar, a sound that must have left the home side's goalkeeper, Brian Murphy, feeling a little relieved.

It was the best chance of a half in which the visitors, despite a habit of giving the ball cheaply in midfield and a tendency to give opponents a little too much time on the ball in the same area of the pitch, pretty much held their own.

Mindaugas Kalonas and Crowe did both have chances to put the home side ahead only to direct their shots straight at James Gallagher but, at the other end, the Harps frontmen were matching their opponents almost shot for shot, albeit from a little further out.

Beckett, like Kalonas behind Crowe for the locals, played a key role in most of side's attacking moves from the space just off Stephen Parkhouse in attack.

Chris Breen proved a thorn in the home side's defence too with the right-sided midfielder looking comfortable and dangerous when pushing on towards Conor Powell down the home side's left flank.

The chances he helped to generate all came in the form of low, long-range strikes until close to the hour mark when the Bohemians back four went to sleep, Breen lifted a curling cross into Parkhouse and the striker opted to try a volley when really he might have fared better had he shown more composure and taken the ball down.

Somewhat inevitably that near miss proved costly for the visitors. Several Bohemians players had been playing well below themselves and an improvement had always seemed to be on the cards - and it duly came.

Sure enough, a few minutes after Parkhouse had fired over, the Dubliners won a corner which Killian Brennan took and McGuinness almost headed home. David Tyrell had turned the ball wide from just short of the line but he was only delaying the inevitable for, from the second corner kick, the Bohemians pair simply repeated the routine with the big centre half's header sailing safely into the top corner from 10 yards this time.

The second came 10 minutes later with Dempsey doing most of the hard work to get in a shot from the right hand side of the box which Gallagher parried allowing Crowe to step between two defenders to head home from close range.

By the third, Bohemians were showing signs of enjoying themselves with Neale Fenn briefly toying with the defenders around him after another Brennan corner before laying the ball off to Deegan for a low strike that flew into the bottom left corner from 25 yards.

It was all a little harsh on Harps who continued to work hard to the end but then they are far from the first side to discover that the soon to be champions can sometimes win almost without breaking sweat these days.

BOHEMIANS:Murphy; Heary, Burns, McGuinness, Powell; Murphy (Fenn, 62 mins), Deegan, O'Donnell, Brennan; Kalonas (McGill, 80 mins); Crowe (Byrne, 85 mins).

FINN HARPS:Gallagher; Mukendi, Labonte, Boyle, Holmes; Breen, Funston, McGowan (Friel, 80 mins), Tyrell (Connaghan, 80 mins); Beckett (Bonner, 88 mins); Parkhouse.

Referee:N Doyle (Dublin).