LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION Bray Wanderers 0 Bohemians 2:AS MOST of their title rivals prepare to be distracted by Europe, Bohemians efficiently put their Intertoto Cup exit behind them last night here, where goals from Jason McGuinness and Glen Crowe earned a seventh successive league victory and moved them to within a point of St Patrick's Athletic at the top of the Premier Division.
On the face of it, this was always the sort of game that would-be champions ought to be winning, but Pat Fenlon's men made the short journey knowing that Derry and Drogheda had lost here, while Bohemians had been particularly lucky to beat Wanderers when they met at Dalymount in the spring.
The visitors were missing half-a-dozen players either through injury or suspension, but Fenlon's starting 11 still had the look of a side that should have been up to the task.
As it turned out, though, they played rather poorly and struggled to assert themselves in a patchy game that produced few clear-cut chances, at least until it opened up well into the second half.
For the best part of the night Bray proved resilient in defence, and Crowe, in particular, found it hard to get either time or space.
They looked determined to hold their own in midfield, too, where Thomas Heary and Stephen O'Donnell were rarely allowed the opportunity to release their strikers with a decent through ball or, indeed, to lend a hand in attack themselves.
What Wanderers were not so good at, it transpired, was defending set-pieces. When O'Donnell floated in a corner from the right just short of half an hour in, McGuinness headed his first attempt at goal into the back of Kevin Doherty before poking the rebound home from five yards as a handful of opponents looked on from close by.
It was the defender's third goal in four outings, all of them coming in much the same manner.
Thomas Heary went close not long after with a shot on the turn, but the second came nine minutes into the second period when Neale Fenn's clever free-kick found Crowe in space around the penalty spot, from where the striker merrily sent the ball flying past Alan Gough.
It might have been three when Gough had to come out of his box and head clear a couple of minutes later, but Harpal Singh's attempt to lob the retreating goalkeeper flew wide.
Eddie Gormley then made a couple of changes and Bray stepped things up a little in the hope of salvaging something.
Sure enough, they came close to halving the deficit when one of the substitutes, Gareth Coughlan, forced Brian Murphy to stop his low shot with an outstretched foot.
After that, though, the time slipped steadily by and Bohemians looked comfortable if not impressive.
Gough did well to prevent Crowe getting his second when he pushed a first-time shot from 15 yards just over, before Murphy made the save of the night from O'Keefe. But neither side could find the net again and the game lost a much of its edge as the result became inevitable.
Gormley might take some consolation from O'Keefe's strong showing on this, his debut since moving on loan from Drogheda.
Perhaps more significant, though, was Anto Murphy's first appearance in a Bohemians shirt after arriving over the weekend from Sligo Rovers. The midfielder did enough here to suggest he might play a significant part in frustrating the title ambitions of his former team-mates up at Richmond Park.
BRAY WANDERERS:Gough; Ivory, Doherty, Foran (Kenny, 62 mins), Pender; Kavanagh, Whelan, Cronin, Massey (Coughlan, 55 mins); Rowe, O'Keefe (O'Neill, 82 mins).
BOHEMIANS:Murphy; O Heary, McGuinness, Burns, Powell; Murphy, T Heary (Hunt, 81 mins), O'Donnell, Singh; Fenn; Crowe.
Referee:H Whorisky (Dublin).
