Bohemians win moves them within two points of Shamrock Rovers

Bohemians 2 St Patrick’s Athletic 0

Bohemians moved to within two points of arch Dublin rivals Shamrock Rovers at the top of the table thanks to what proved a rather pedestrian win over Stephen O'Donnell's St Pat's side at Dalymount Park on Saturday afternoon.

The visitors came into the game off the back of a strong defensive display against the league leaders last Sunday but made things far too easy for their opponents here.

There may have been a touch of good fortune about Anto Breslin's wind assisted opener from long range but Andre Wright was almost unchallenged as he headed home a corner from close range to make it 2-0 after 23 minutes. There could easily have been a couple more goals by the break too.

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Kris Twardek posed a particular threat down the left for the home side and when he got beyond Rory Feely and picked out Keith Buckley at the far post, it took quite a miskick from the Bohemians captain to prevent him scoring from five yards out.

Keith Ward should then have done better when Buckley sought to release him just before the interval. At that stage, though, it felt as though Bohemians would cruise to their fifth straight league win over the course of the second half.

St Patrick's, to be fair, steadied the ship after the break and changed their formation in the hope of posing more of an attacking threat after a spell in which a deflected shot by Jordan Gibson had been their solitary attempt on goal.

They did at least succeed in getting themselves more into things in midfield and the game became more even but there was never any sustained sense that they could get back on level terms with Twardek coming by far the closest of anyone to getting the game’s third goal when he hit the crossbar 17 minutes from the end.

With 10 minutes left, O'Donnell changed the shape again as he brought on Darragh Markey and Martin Rennie in a final attempt to get at the home side but Bohemians continued to look pretty comfortable despite conceding a couple of half-chances.

Keith Long’s side now get to concentrate on Europe and the Cup for a bit but the win means that they will be playing to go top of the table when they head to Tallaght in a couple of weeks.

Bohemians: McGuinness; Lyons, Cornwall, Casey, Breslin; Buckley, Lunney; Grant, Ward (Devon, 65 mins), Twardek; Wright.

St Patrick's: Clarke; Feely, McNally, Birmingham (Markey, 80 mins), Desmond; Lennon (McClelland, 58 mins), Forrester; Gibson, Benson, King (Doona, 72 mins); Kelly (Rennie, 80).

Referee: D Tomney (Dublin)