League of Ireland: Bohemians 1 (Hickey 87) Galway United 0
Patrick Hickey scored his first goal for Bohemians to down his former club as the unbeaten Gypsies made it five successive victories to maintain their three-point lead at the top of the Premier Division table.
In a game Bohemians dominated, Galway United’s disciplined resilience was finally broken on 86 minutes.
Goalkeeper Evan Watts and midfielder Aaron Bolger got their wires crossed in failing to prevent a corner.
Substitute Markuss Strods’ delivery found towering defender Hickey, whose header arrowed to the corner of Watts’ net. The score provided a peculiar fact in that the American’s last league goal was for Galway when they beat Bohemians at Eamonn Deacy Park last October, prior to his close season move to Dalymount.
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Further to a frantic finish, Galway would have snatched a point but for a dreadful miss by substitute Matt Wolfe, who contrived to shoot wide of goal from just yards out three minutes into added time.
Bohemians, labelled real title contenders by Galway head coach John Caulfield in the build up to the game, not unexpectedly enjoyed plenty of the ball early on.
Senan Mullen got forward from left-back to tee up Ross Tierney whose shot was straight at the well positioned Watts in registering a first shot on target on five minutes.
With skipper Dawson Devoy dictating much of the play in the middle of the park, Bohemians maintained the pressure as Galway laboured to get out of their own half.
Mullen worked Watts again from distance as the visitors were having to defend in numbers, their frustration echoed by Caulfield who received a yellow card for dissent after 14 minutes.
When Galway did get forward the defending at the opposite end was clinical, Sam Todd making a superbly timed tackle to take the ball off Francely Lomboto following a Tribesmen counterattack.
Despite their dominance, there was another scare for Bohemians on 25 minutes. Striker Lomboto did well to spin past Hickey in the middle of the field and slip a ball through for the run of his skipper Jimmy Keohane. The pass had just a little too much pace on it and Kacper Chorazka was promptly off his line to gather.
Despite setting the tempo, Bohemians struggled to create clear-cut openings as they trooped off at the interval frustrated with having nothing to show for their first-half superiority.
Galway began the second half with their first spell of possession, Ed McCarthy bringing Chorazka’s first save of the night with a crisp drive from outside the area.
Service resumed at the other end with Watts called on to make a couple of top-drawer saves to keep Bohemians out.
First the young Swansea City loanee went full stretch to push Devoy’s free kick round a post.
The 21-year-old was there again from Tierney’s resulting corner, showing further agility to touch Hickey’s close range shot over his crossbar.
But within minutes, Bohemians had to survive another fright. A loose pass gave McCarthy possession to angle a diagonal ball through for the run of Keohane who, stretching, poked his shot wide.
Frantic defending kept Bohemians out at the Phibsborough end, substitute Zan Myers having a shot blocked before Tierney’s follow-up was deflected out for a corner.
With the game having opened up, the save of the night then came back at the other end on 77 minutes. McCarthy’s long throw was flicked on at the near post by Gianfranco Facchineri. Substitute Kris Twardek held his head in his hands after watching Chorazka somehow get down to keep out his close range header.
Watts remained the busier keeper, though, springing down to his right-hand post to turn Mullen’s shot out for another Bohemians corner before their deserved breakthrough finally arrived.
BOHEMIANS: Chorazka; Morahan (Power, 60), Hickey, Todd, Mullen; McDonnell (Flores, 60), Devoy; Parsons (Strods, 70), Tierney (Martin, 80), Vaughan (Myers, 60); Whelan.
GALWAY UNITED: Watts; Parker (Wolfe, 90), Facchineri, Brouder (Williams, 76), Kazeem (Walsh, 62); Keohane (Pierrot, 90), Bolger, Hurley, McCarthy; Devitt; Lomboto (Twardek, 62).
Referee: D Murphy (Dublin).
Attendance: 4,096.
