It was more of a shunting than a derailment, but last night's goalless draw at Dalymount Park has done little for Bohemians. They must now wait until this evening to see whether Shelbourne take their opportunity in Ballybofey to extend the gap at the top of the table to six points with seven rounds of matches remaining.
The home side may have had the better of it, but City held their own when it came to the tally of clearcut chances with Gary Beckett and Liam Coyle in particular passing up chances to earn their team victory.
Beckett's pace was a thorn in the side of the Bohemians back four from early on with Eoin Mullen and Avery John having to scramble back several times while it was a short ball through the centre from Shaun Maher that provided the home side's best chance of the opening stages, one that Garreth O'Connor got onto but then overhit from some 10 yards when he only had the stranded David Platt to beat.
The miss set the tone for the match with both sides exploiting the weaknesses of the opposing defence all the way to the goalmouth when, generally speaking, they seemed to lose their nerve.
From early on it was fairly pacey stuff, though, with the home side bearing down on David Platt's goal from both flanks and forcing him into a couple of decent interventions while City settled for beating the offside trap time and again with Beckett usually the man sent speeding goalwards.
The striker had the pace for the job but on the night lacked the finish. True, Michael Dempsey got himself between ball and goal, but he never really should have had the opportunity.
One might have expected Liam Coyle to do better but, when his chance came thanks to an Andy Moran header that caught the Bohemians' defence cold, the northerner, who has a knack for scoring with spectacular efforts, missed the target with a toe poke from 12 yards while under pressure from Shaun Maher. This time Dempsey was beaten and the ball hopped harmlessly wide.
For the remaining 25 minutes the title chasers did their damnedest to squeeze the extra two points but the northerners' defenders still have the faintest hint of a bit of foreign travel in their nostrils at the moment and they weren't giving up easily.
More than once Roddy Collins's strikers appeared to have time to line up their shots but Peter Hutton, Darren Kelly and Eddie McCallion repeatedly tackled back in the nick of time and Platt, kept busy enough through the first period, had little to do despite play being centred about his area.
Gradually the locals just seemed to run out of ideas and though they kept up the tempo until the final whistle, they simply didn't have the wherewithal to break down their determined opponents. The result means that Bohemians narrow the gap at the top to three points but, with Dermot Keely's side in action at Finn Harps tonight, their failure to win could well prove a important blow to their hopes.
The First Division game between Limerick and Home Farm, fixed for Hogan Park last evening, was called off by referee John O'Neill 25 minutes before the scheduled start after he deemed the pitch unplayable. Home Farm had travelled for the fixture and a refixture has yet to be set.
BOHEMIANS: Dempsey; Vaudequin, Maher, John, Mullen; Byrne, Hunt, Caffrey, G O'Connor; Kelly, Swan. Subs: Brunton for Mullen (58 mins), Crowe for Swan (67).
DERRY CITY: Platt; McCallion, Kelly, Hutton, McLaughlin; Moran, Doherty, Hegarty, McIvor; Coyle, Beckett. Subs: McCaul for McIvor (81 mins), Taylor for Coyle (87).
Referee: J McDermott (Dublin)
