Bohemians leave door open to title rivals

St Patrick's Athletic ... 2 Bohemians ... 0 While their nearest rivals, Shelbourne, had a night off across the city, Bohemians finally found another team capable of hampering their march towards this season's title last night at Richmond Park where Stephen Kenny's men suffered only their second defeat of the season. And St Patrick's managed to resuscitate the championship challenge of Bohemians' most bitter rivals.

It was not the prettiest of sights but the home side deserved the win earned for them by Tony Bird's goal five minutes before the break and Paul Osam's 20 minutes after it.

Sheer determination made up for the ordinariness of much of their football and it was hard to fathom quite how a team capable of imposing itself so forcefully on the league leaders could have managed just two wins in their previous 15 games.

Bohemians were quite simply never allowed to get into their stride and without the league's leading scorer, Glenn Crowe - still suffering from the after-effects of his collision last week with strike partner Paul Keegan and reported afterwards to be a serious doubt for the team's remaining games of the run-in - they did not look quite so irresistible in the last third of the pitch.

This was, in fact, the first time Kenny's men had failed to score in the league this season and given the home side's defensive record of late that failure will have particularly frustrated the Bohemians manager.

Keegan and Fergal Harkin, though, found themselves muscled out of things around the area and what chances did come Bohemians' way were generally the product of decent work in midfield, where Kevin Hunt produced occasional glimpses of the sort of football this entire team has managed against less gruelling opponents, and the aerial threat occasionally posed by Derek Coughlan.

St Patrick's manager Pat Dolan, however, had shaken up a team on a miserable run of form lately, making four changes to the side beaten in Derry last week. After rolling over rather miserably against Bray Wanderers on their last appearance on home territory there was clearly a renewed bite to their game, especially in midfield.

More than once it manifested itself in a rather robust approach to the players' defensive duties - Liam Kelly and Trevor Croly were both booked for rough challenges on Mark Rutherford while Osam should have been booked for a lunge at Hunt. There were offenders on both sides, however, and at times late in the first half referee John McDermott's rather slender grip on what was certainly a very passionate contest threatened to evaporate completely.

But then the success of Dolan's side last year had been built upon their ability to unsettle their opposition and then grab goals, often from setpieces. What we appeared to be witnessing last night was the recovery of that old hunger for a battle.

Their opening goal came after what had been Bohemians' most constructive period but it was the hosts who swept forward to take the lead, breaking down the left where Tony O'Connor became wrapped around Michael Holt and could only watch as Colm Foley tore past down the wing and provided a well weighted low cross for Bird to turn home from close range.

The goal clearly jolted Bohemians but with an hour played they were stopped in their tracks, first by Derek Coughlan's dismissal for a second bookable challenge on the lively looking Kevin Doyle and then, from the resulting free-kick, by Osam's firm header into the left-hand corner from a couple of yards out.

A man and two goals up the home side now held all the aces and for all their disappointments of the past few months, the St Patrick's players hadn't forgotten how to convert that sort of advantage into three points.

Bohemians, as they had to, pushed hard in the hope of salvaging something. However, a third goal looked more likely to, and should have, come courtesy of Doyle or Bird, both of whom missed open goals as the contest moved into its final quarter of an hour.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Kelly; Croly, Harris, Foley, Marney; Kelly, Donnelly, Osam, Holt (Griffin, 84 mins); Doyle (McCarthy, 77 mins), Bird.

BOHEMIANS: Bayes; O'Connor (Lynch, 77 mins), Coughlan, Hawkins, Webb; Ryan, Hunt, Caffrey (Reilly, 77 mins), Rutherford (O'Neill, 63 mins); Keegan, Harkin.

Referee: J McDermott (Dublin).