St Patrick's Ath 0 Bohemians 1:BOHEMIANS MOVED ahead of St Patrick's Athletic and into top spot in the Premier Division table after this hard-fought Dublin derby at Richmond Park last night. Killian Brennan struck the all-important goal on 51 minutes when he met a Glen Crowe ball and slotted past Barry Ryan from close range.
The opening quarter-hour was dour with neither side taking a dominant role. This early period also saw some hard tackles committed by both sides, the toughest of which was a crunching challenge by Bohs' Jason Byrne on Alan Kirby after 11 minutes that was caused more by the greasy surface than any intent to foul.
Pat's soon began to boss things and on 12 minutes Keith Fahey floated a ball from the left that found the head of Jamie Harris. The Welshman knocked it on to Gary Dempsey who managed to get an effort on target, but Bohs keeper Brian Murphy turned the ball round the post.
The referee's assistant on the near side had flagged Dempsey offside regardless.
Two minutes after that Kirby squared a ball from the left wing toward the box but there was too much weight in his pass and the ball flashed across the goalmouth before the inrushing Gary O'Neill could make a connection.
On 22 minutes Kirby faced two Bohs defenders when in possession of the ball just outside the box. He cleverly turned and fed Dessie Byrne, who tried a long-range effort that was comfortably saved by Murphy.
It was coming up to the half hour before Bohs got close to the Pat's goal. Stephen O'Donnell put Brennan in with an inch-perfect ball but Harris got a leg to the ball and cleared the danger.
Harris went close to putting Pat's ahead on 32 minutes when he got his head to a Keith Fahey free-kick but the ball went wide of Murphy's left-hand post.
The first yellow card came on 33 minutes for Damien Lynch for a challenge on Neale Fenn. He was followed into referee Alan Kelly's notebook by O'Donnell on 44 minutes after he tugged on Fahey's shirt.
Pat's continued to have a slight upper hand and on the stroke of half-time O'Neill headed wide from a Fahey corner.
Bohs started the second half strongly. They looked more comfortable, passed the ball around, and soon took the lead.
That opening goal came on 51 minutes when Crowe escaped the Pat's offside trap, cut in from the right and passed to Brennan, who slotted past Ryan from close range.
Pat's boss Johnny McDonnell responded by making a double substitution on 59 minutes, Joseph Ndo and Glen Fitzpatrick replacing Kirby and O'Neill. This change also saw Fahey move out wide on the right wing. Bohs left Crowe up front just ahead of Fenn, Brennan and Byrne.
Looking for an equaliser, Pat's pushed forward but left gaps at the back and Brennan set up Fenn on 71 minutes but Ryan got down well to block his shot. The rebound fell to Fenn but he shot wide.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC:Barry Ryan, S Brennan, Lynch, Harris, D Byrne, Dempsey, Kirby (Ndo, 59 mins), Fahey (Bobby Ryan, 89 mins), Guy, Quigley (Fitzpatrick, 59 mins), O'Neill.
BOHEMIANS:Murphy, Rossiter, Heary, Oman, Burns, Cronin, O'Donnell, K Brennan, J Byrne (Turner, 89 mins), Fenn (Kelly, 86 mins), Crowe (Mansaram, 80 mins).
Referee:A Kelly (Cork).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)