A goal feast, which saw them hit the net four times during the closing 13 minutes, fired Bohemians into the FAI Cup semi-finals following the demolition of struggling Kilkenny City at Buckley Park yesterday.
Defender David Hill, Trevor Molloy, Glen Crowe and Mark Rutherford all got in on the scoring act during a blistering finish to bury without trace Kilkenny's cup dream.
"Kilkenny heads dropped after our fourth goal," suggested Bohemians boss Roddy Collins afterwards. "You can't do that against us with the fire-power we have. It's great to be back in the cup semi-finals again. This was a good professional performance from us."
Collins said Bohemians had a simple game-plan and it worked a treat. They pumped the ball in early behind the Kilkenny defence and caused all sorts of confusion.
The approach bore rich returns early on. After 10 breath-taking minutes, Bohemians were 3-1 up. Kilkenny plundered a 51st-minute goal through reserve Bryan Jackson to claw their way back into the game and, for a while, they caused the visitors problems.
But after Bohemians regained the initiative with their fourth goal in the 77th minute, it was all over. Simon Webb floated over a corner from the right and David Hill rose unchallenged on the edge of the six-yard box to head his team 42 in front.
The 1,200 fans enjoyed an all-action opening 10 minutes. The game was no more than two minutes old Glen Crowe rounded goalkeeper Matthew Nelson and planted the ball in the empty net.
Within two minutes, Kilkenny were back level. A long ball from Nelson was dealt with badly by the Bohemians defence and Mick O'Byrne blasted it through the net from eight yards.
The high octane approach all round continued, and so too did the flow of goals. In the 10th minute, O'Byrne handled the ball in the Kilkenny area and Trevor Molloy made no mistake with the spot-kick.
Kilkenny upped the tempo after the break and, after a shot from Carlos Rocha was blocked out by Tony O'Connor, the loose ball was drilled into the net by Bryan Jackson.
After Hill's 77th-minute strike it was exhibition football. On 86 minutes, Mark Rutherford crossed from the left and a free Trevor Molloy on the back post smashed home with a super drive.
In the 90th minute, a long ball by Trevor Molloy was prodded home from the edge of the area by Glen Crowe, who beat the goalkeeper in a race for possession. Rutherford rounded off the scoring in the 91st minute.
KILKENNY CITY: M Nelson; G O'Hanlon, R Brunton, R Purdy, D Mulcahy, D Brennan, G Johnson, D McGrath, C Rocha, G Wilkinson, M O'Byrne. Subs: S Murphy for Johnson (44 mins); B Jackson for O'Hanlon (46 mins).
BOHEMIANS: W Russell; A O'Connor, S Webb, J Fulham, S Maher, D Hill, T Molloy, S Caffrey, G O'Neill, G Crowe, M Rutherford. Sub: L O'Brien for Fulham (79 mins).
Referee: H Byrne (Dublin).
