Soccer National League Premier Division Bohemians - 0 Shamrock Rovers - 0: With all the talk of tomorrow's cup final over the past few days these two took the opportunity last night to show that there's still plenty of life in the league campaign.
The result will have disappointed everyone, most of all Bohemians who will trail Shelbourne by seven points at the top of the table if their rivals can win at the Brandywell this evening.
Not a soul, though, could have gone home grumbling about the quality of a game that started well, consistently improved until a nail-biting end in which Dave Morrison twice might have grabbed the extra two points for Bohemians, and which saw Tony Grant go even closer at the other end with a header that hopped off the crossbar on the way behind.
Bohemians deserved credit for the manner in which they pursued the victory they wanted so badly, with everybody in the side contributing to a marvellous display of attacking football. Up front it didn't quite click for the visitors, however, as Rovers stood their ground and pressed repeatedly to get forward in search of the goal that would have aided their somewhat shaky hopes of playing in Europe again next season.
In the terms of the quality of the passing football it would have been impossible to separate the two sides through an opening half that provided an abundance of entertainment.
Both sides came into the game with a run of decent results behind them and it didn't take long to figure out why, for each produced the sort of fast-moving first touch football that would ordinarily have entitled them to expect the upper hand.
In terms of chances created, however, Bohemians, enjoyed something of an edge. While the Rovers back four did their best to deprive Glen Crowe and Robbie Doyle the time or space to create problems around the box, the pair still slipped their markers and Tony O'Dowd was obliged to save well with his feet early on when Crowe broke clear only to produce a disappointing shot. When he threatened to go one on one with the Rovers goalkeeper again, 17 minutes from the end, he was wrongly ruled offside.
Between the two incidents the quality of the finishing didn't get much better and afterwards it got worse, an unfortunate but forgivable blemish on an otherwise absorbing game.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: O'Dowd; Gough, Deans, Palmer, Doyle; S Grant, Boughanem, Colwell, Keddy; Fitzpatrick, Molloy (T Grant, 74 mins).
BOHEMIANS: Kelly; Heary, Oman, Hawkins, Webb; Ryan, Hunt, Caffrey (Harkin, 81 mins), Morrison; Crowe, Doyle (Keegan, 79 mins).
Referee: D McKeon (Dublin).
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