Bohemians impress but fail to take the spoils

Across the water there has long been a case made by those associated with the London clubs that they start each championship at a disadvantage to their northern rivals because of the number of derbies involved.

After last night, Turlough O'Connor will doubtless be sending his counterparts at Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea a message of support.

Shamrock Rovers went to Dalymount Park with the same number of points as their old rivals and with the chance to silence their critics by going to top of the table. Instead, for most of a game that only really came to life in the last 20 minutes, they were overrun by a more imaginative and inventive team.

The visitors had started neatly, however. Jason Colwell distributed the ball well from the centre of midfield and all around him there was plenty of movement off the ball as they edged towards the Bohemians area.

Once within striking distance of it, however, they repeatedly ran into problems as Robbie Best and Maurice O'Driscoll successfully shielded their goalkeeper from danger, never allowing the final Rovers ball to get through to lone striker Tony Cousins.

When Bohemians went forward, on the other hand, the danger seemed to spring from every direction with Joe Hanrahan darting down the left, Paul Doolin pushing through effectively from midfield and Peter Hanrahan and Derek Swan finding holes left, right and centre in their opponents' back five.

It took 13 minutes for them to break through, Doolin playing a lovely one-two with Swan and slipping the ball past Robert Forde from 12 yards. At that stage, a repeat of last week's four against Finn Harps seemed to be well within their grasp.

For all their superiority, though, the home side couldn't manage another clear-cut chance before the break, while Cousins might have snatched an equaliser in the 41st minute when he turned his marker wonderfully only to send his chip just over the crossbar.

Undeterred, O'Connor's side took control again after the break with Tommy Byrne going close, Peter Hanrahan forcing a good save from Forde and Eoin Mullen heading against the crossbar, while the best Rovers could muster in return was a neat but powerless flick and shot from long range from Gino Brazil well out on the left.

When, shortly afterwards in the 68th minute, Tony Cousins lobbed a free directly towards Bohemians goalkeeper Michael Dempsey, their whole approach began to take on a look of pointlessness but, when Dempsey spilled the ball into Mark O'Neill's path and the midfielder tapped the ball home, it suddenly appeared that we might have a game on our hands.

Instead we got a scrap. A Richie Purdy challenge on Peter Hanrahan should have resulted in a penalty and a sending off but with referee John McDermott unsighted, the upshot was an exchange of increasingly aggressive challenges.

Despite the change in tempo the home side remained the far more likely to take the extra points. Brian Mooney's header was cleared off the line by O'Neill after Forde had misjudged, Byrne forced better stuff from the goalkeeper and then sent the loose ball just wide of the post and, finally, Purdy had to clean up after Forde had ventured recklessly into no man's land.

Rovers would simply not give in and for that, if nothing else, they deserved the point they got.