Champions Bohemians recorded their third successive draw in a scoreless encounter with Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle grounds yesterday, a game ruined by the windy conditions.
But there were few complaints from the Bohemians manager, Peter Mahon. Without the suspended Glen Crowe and the injured Mark Rutherford and Dave Hill, the visitors were forced to reorganise their starting line-up with five men in midfield and Trevor Molloy operating as a lone striker.
Bray had the monopoly of the scoring opportunities with striker Jason Byrne wasting some clear-cut opportunities in the opening half.
The normally accurate Byrne shot over from eight yards after a Paul Keegan cross from the right in the seventh minute. Then only the excellence of goalkeeper Wayne Russell denied the Bray striker when he finger-tipped a powerful drive from 20 yards over the bar.
Molloy did have a chance to break the deadlock for Bohemians on 32 minutes after neat approach work down the left by Kevin Hunt and Dave Morrison. But when the cross came over he volleyed narrowly wide from six yards.
Bohemians had a let-off on 49 minutes when a Barry O'Connor header looked goal bound only for Hunt to retrieve the situation and clear off his line.
Bray had to be thankful to goalkeeper Alan Young when he dived full length to push a 20-yard effort from Simon Webb round the post.
Cork referee Alan Kelly then ruled that a shot from Thomas Morgan had not been handled by Brian Shelley with the Bray players protesting for a penalty. With play allowed to continue, Byrne shot inches wide of the target.
BRAY WANDERERS: Young, Long, Tresson, Charles, Farrell, O'Connor, Morgan, Fox, Gormley (Keogh 84 mins), Keegan, Byrne.
BOHEMIANS; Russell, Shelley, O'Connor, John, Webb, P Byrne, Caffrey (O'Brien 75 mins), Harkin (Harkin 38 mins), Hunt, Morrison, Molloy.
Referee: A Kelly (Cork).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)