Conference League first-round qualifier, second leg: St Joseph’s 0 Bohemians 0 – Bohemians win 2-0 on aggregate
Bohemians progressed to the second round of the Uefa Conference League qualifiers with a competent display against St Joseph’s in Gibraltar.
Alan Reynolds’ side will now face Ballkani from Kosovo over two legs on July 23rd and 30th.
A sleepy game played under a brutal Iberian sun turned violent in the 63rd minute as the Bohs bench rushed on to the artificial surface at the Europa Point stadium after Francis Ferrón manhandled Dawson Devoy.
The temperature had been rising. The melee resulted in Latvian referee Kristaps Ratnieks showing Devoy and St Joseph’s’ Marco Rosa yellow cards while Ferrón was issued a red.
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The Bohs captain appeared to have taken revenge on Álvaro Cascajo for leaving his mark on Markuss Strods. Ratnieks was on the scene, yellow card in hand for Devoy, when Rosa retaliated with a shove that prompted Ferrón to lose the run of himself. The 36-year-old Spanish forward wrapped his hand around the Ireland international’s face and squeezed.
It prompted a pitch-invasion as the rudimentary European tie reached boiling point.
Ferrón’s dismissal brought a measure of calm to proceedings in a contest that Bohs should have put beyond reasonable doubt by the hour mark. Leading 2-0 from the first-leg at Dalymount Park, Jordan Flores and Connor Parsons spurned chances to make it 3-0 on aggregate.
It was not a complete cake walk though, as St Joseph’s came close to troubling Bohs’ American goalkeeper Paul Walters. Perhaps Cascajo and Ferrón were frustrated by their own inaccuracy in front of goal in the first-half.
There was a strong rendition of Johnny Logan’s Hold Me Now – the Bohs anthem – from hundreds of travelling fans, baking in the 32-degree heat, before Harry Vaughan and Colm Whelan both failed to find the target late on.
ST JOSEPH’S: Banda; Fobi, Badba, Lauture, Paul; Pirulo (Ray 68), Diedhiou (Forján 68), Juanma (De Haro 75); Rosa (Moreno 75), Cascajo (Coombes 60), Ferrón.
BOHEMIANS: Walters; Hickey, Todd, Mullen (Byrne 60), Flores (Diallo 84); Morahan, Devoy, Tierney (Vaughan 84); Parsons (Strods 60), James-Taylor (Whelan 60), Rooney.
Referee: K Ratnieks (Lativa).
