Bohemians - 1 Derry City - 1 Wins over Waterford and Dundalk may have suggested that Bohemians were returning to their best over the past week. But after another game at Dalymount, memorable mainly for the number of chances passed up by the home side, last season's league champions find themselves another couple of points off the early pacesetters Shelbourne.
Late on Stephen Kenny's men were contained rather efficiently by a Derry side lifted by the prospect of a welcome first point on the road. Early on, however, the visitors looked to be there for the taking and quite how Bohemians found themselves behind at the interval must have been the subject for some lively discussion in the dressing-room at half-time.
Almost from the first minute the home side had been manufacturing a steady stream of scoring chances with Glen Crowe managing three attempts on target in the opening seven minutes, the best of them a clever little volley hit on the turn that forced David Forde into a fingertip save at full stretch.
On both wings the home side were finding space to get forward but it was through the centre that City once again looked remarkably vulnerable with Kevin Hunt, Stephen Caffrey and, on one occasion, Colin Hawkins finding the space to set the team's strikers off in the direction of goal.
Andrei Pereplyotkin, the 18-year-old Ukrainian preferred last night to Paul Keegan as a partner for Crowe up front, looked especially lively, twisting and turning defenders when picking up the ball in deep positions with his back to goal and showing an eye for shooting too when, after 18 minutes, his curling strike from 25-yards came crashing back off the right hand angle.
That shot aside, though, most of the home team's efforts on goal were rather tame and Forde was never required to produce anything out of the ordinary before the break. Still, he did always look solid whereas Shay Kelly had already given the home support a couple of frights by the time he delayed just a moment too long before coming to a badly underhit back pass that Padraig Moran had been quick to latch onto.
The striker did well to push the ball around Kelly and better to find the target from a narrow angle. Hawkins did his best to stop the goal but only managed to get the final touch as the ball moved over the line.
It was hardly the sort of lead that City could hope to dig in and defend, but Kevin Mahon must have anticipated that his team would survive more than five minutes into the second period before conceding an equaliser.
Again, however, his back four showed a tendency to stand a little too far off their opponents and after Hunt had taken advantage by working the ball in well from the right, Caffrey provided a fine finish, shooting low into the bottom left corner from the edge of the area.
Suddenly the league champions looked to be in a commanding position with 40 minutes in which to find a winner. But while there was never any lack of urgency about their attempt to go on and wrap up the game, they were frustrated in part by the growing number of errors they made when pressing forward and by a City side that performed solidly through the second half.
BOHEMIANS: Kelly; Harkin, Coughlan, Hawkins, Webb; Ryan (Doyle, 85 mins), Caffrey, Hunt, Morrison (Rutherford, 71 mins), Pereplyotkin (Keegan, 71 mins), Crowe.
DERRY CITY: Forde; Hutton, McChrystal, McLauhlin, McCallion; McGlynn, Martyn, Doherty, Friars; Beckett, Moran (Deery, 93 mins).
Referee: J O'Neill (Waterford).
