Bohemians may have scuppered their own chances of taking the league with a couple of long indifferent runs of form. Once again, though, they made their presence felt when it came time to play a title contender, beating St Patrick's by two goals at Richmond Park last night, and handing the advantage back to Shelbourne in the National League title race.

This win made it five points taken from Pat Dolan's side this season while they've beaten Shelbourne twice with a game to come next week. If only they'd been so consistent against the also rans.

In truth, though, they were fortunate to come away with all of the points from last night's encounter. It was one of the home team's less impressive displays both up front, where they once again passed up a string of decent chances, and at the back where they defended badly for the two goals.

Still, they weren't complaining in the Bohemians camp afterwards. They don't win too often over at Richmond Park and even after Paul Doolin had put them ahead in the 38th minute with a far post poke-in from Tommy Byrne's corner and Derek Swan had doubled the lead a minute later by driving home a loose ball, there still seemed to be a lot of work to do if they were to make sure of the points.

As St Patrick's grew increasingly impatient through the second period, however, Bohemians kept their heads down and held on tight. Trevor Molloy felt he should have had a penalty at one point and got booked for telling the referee so but, that aside, the home side's chances were few and far between.

The first half had, on the other hand, started promisingly enough for them. Leon Braithewaite might have opened the scoring as early as the 11th minute after Paul Campbell had fed Ian Gilzean inside the area and the big English striker had produced a delicate flick to send his team-mate clear. The shot, though, was just wide of the mark.

With the amount of possession they were enjoying and the constructive way they were generally using it, it seemed that the league leaders would break their opponents. When their best chance of the half arrived, after 25 minutes, however, it was very much a solo effort.

Braithewaite blocked down Eoin Mullen's attempted clearance out towards the half way line and then left the centre half for dead in the chase. But when Braithwaite attempted to beat Michael Dempsey from eight yards out, the angle, as well as the crossbar, combined to frustrate him.

St Patrick's: Wood; Burke, Lynch, Hawkins, Doyle; Campbell, Gormley, Osam; Braithewaite, Gilzean, Molloy. Subs: Devereux for Doyle (64 mins), Reilly for Osam (73 mins), Crolly for Campbell (75 mins).

Bohemians: Dempsey; Broughan, O'Driscoll, Mullen, Byrne; McGrath, Doolin, O'Connor, Mooney; Lawlor, Swan. Subs: P Hanrahan for Byrne (68 mins).

Referee: T Tully (Dublin).