Bohemians let it slip again

ANOTHER match-winning situation, but another two points conceded at the death. Bohemians are making a costly habit of this. As in conceding late equalisers at home to Derry and away to Finn Harps, yesterday's 86th minute leveller by Derek Tracey was largely the result of their own excessively cautious attitude.

Yet 12 minutes from time, they should have been encouraged to see central mid fielder Peter Hanrahan venture forward, exchange passes with an overlapping Brian Mooney to reach the bye-line and tee up Derek Swan, who had peeled away from his marker, with a perfect pull-back. Alas for Bohemians, Swan snatched at the chance in a manner befitting a striker with just one goal in 5 games, having plundered four in the previous five.

Thereafter however, both Hanrahan and Doolin spent the remaining 12 minutes sitting in front of their central defenders, squeezing the space between the two as Bohemians do so well. But with the Bohemians back four also sitting much deeper than they had been, all this merely served to do was invite Shamrock Rovers on to them.

Credit to Rovers though. Where others might have resorted to launching speculative high balls forward, they kept it on the deck. Pat Fenlon and Aaron Lynch worked the ball to feet nicely, and Tracey was becoming increasingly lively. You sensed there might be something there for them.

Pat Byrne introduced the talented but annoyingly inconsistent Marc Kenny seven minutes from time, and within three minutes another patient build-up saw Sean Francis create space for Kenny to deliver a devilish cross. Rovers had thrown Paul Whelan forward and with Bohemians perhaps distracted by his presence Tracey was able to ghost in at the far post and convert a glancing, far post header from about six yards.

"We've only ourselves to blame," admitted Turlough O'Connor, bemoaning the nagging inability to kill off matches. This one, he correctly summarised as "a scrappy type of game. There was no pattern, no shape to the game. It was a very hard game to assess as such."

For all Bohemians' understandable sense of anti-climax afterwards, it was arguably no less than a game Rovers deserved something from. They had recovered enterprisingly from a confident Bohemians start, which had seen James Coll head a Derek McGrath corner over before Mooney failed to punish Robbie Horgan for a wayward clearance when missing the empty net from far out.

Coll was particularly error-prone in a nervy Bohemians' defence, his miscue and Robbie Best's weak header putting Sean Francis in the clear. However, his half-hearted left-footed shot betrayed an even greater lack of confidence than Swan's, hardly surprising after just one goal this season to add to his three of last term.

Within a minute, Fenton helped on Stephen Grant's cross and Tony Cousins' well-struck volley was directed straight at Dave Henderson. As much as the excellent John McDermott let the game flow, space was at a premium in a tight, competitive Dublin derby which drew a good-sized crowd of approximately 4,000.

Attacking the Shed end and the home supporters, Rovers began the second-half brighter; Cousins Just missing the target with a near post header from a Francis cross before Fenton fired over.

Cue the first of two hugely influential substitutions as O'Connor brought on the all-action man, Warren Parkes, for John Ryan.

Within two minutes, Parkes latched onto Hanrahan's flick, beating Brazil to a bouncing ball and releasing Mooney before stretching out to poke the ensuing low cross past Robbie Horgan's laboured dive.

Bohemians then got a swift warning when Lynch's penetrating run and cross which saw Grant, out of position and an inadequate replacement for the departed Lee Williams (on trial with Walsall) volley over.

Parkes threatened a second when bursting onto Doolin's pass before shooting wide from 25 yards, unaware of Swan inside him.

But this, along with Swan's subsequent miss, were isolated forays by small raiding parties. Bohemians sat deeper and deeper, hoofing the ball clear first-time and so back to Rovers, who kept their heads and kept passing it.

"Bohs seem to bring the best out of us," said Pat Byrne, his mercurial outfit now edging above Dundalk on goal difference and out of the play-off place. "But we've got to play like that every week."