Bohemians - 2 UCD - 1 With last week's defeat by the league's new leaders, St Patrick's Athletic, still fresh in the memory, there were few complaints from the Bohemians camp last night at Dalymount Park as the defending champions produced a display well short of their best but still bagged all three points.
Not for the first time at home this season, Stephen Kenny's side struggled to kill off a game they will feel they should have won easily. UCD deserved credit for their second-half pursuit of what looked a thoroughly lost cause but Paul Doolin will know it will take a good deal more than pluckiness from his men during the months ahead if they are again to dig themselves out of trouble at the wrong end of the table.
By half-time last night's game looked to be over as a contest with the visitors, having conceded two goals without reply, looked a good deal more inferior than the scoreline would suggest.
Up front they had possessed little or nothing to trouble Seamas Kelly or his defence while their own back line was repeatedly opened up by a Bohemians midfield which could count every time, it seemed, on Glen Crowe and Robbie Doyle to comfortably beat their markers for pace.
The pair linked up well for the opening goal just five minutes in with the club's top scorer neatly controlling a long ball from Simon Webb under pressure from Tony McDonnell before somehow pulling a low cross back for his striking partner, who nipped between Austin O'Neill and a defender to poke the ball home from a couple of yards.
The Students picked themselves up and played some decent passing football over the 40 minutes that followed but, while a long-range Alan Cawley effort that flew well over the target was as close as they came to conjuring up an equaliser, Doolin's side always looked vulnerable to conceding a second themselves.
Their back four's inability to clear the ball effectively from their own area was a recurring problem and almost proved costly on a couple of occasions, with Stephen Caffrey striking the crossbar and Doyle firing just wide after both had been handed possession within shooting range by a defender.
To the irritation of the home crowd the Students did at least hold their own in terms of free kicks received but when Ian Stokes opted to wave play on after a quick exchange of fouls out near half way nine minutes before the break, Caffrey curled the ball into the path of Doyle whose low shot across of the face of the goal eluded O'Neill on the way to the bottom left corner.
That should have been an end to any lingering doubt over the destination of the points but Bohemians haven't got where they are today (lower mid-table) by making life easy for themselves and some slack defending in the face of a Cawley free 11 minutes into the second period allowed Robbie Griffin to send a looping header over Kelly and restore some hope to the visitors.
A disappointing game then threatened to become interesting with Cawley occasionally bringing a bit of an edge to his side's moves forward and the Bohemians back four continuing to look less than entirely convincing, especially at set-pieces.
The northsiders, though, continued to generate almost all of the real scoring chances, with Kevin Hunt striking the post, Fergal Harkin forcing O'Neill into what was probably his best save of the night, and Crowe passing up quite a number of the sort of opportunities that he normally sticks away.
Late on the visitors came close to grabbing an equaliser but it would have been a remarkable stroke of good fortune for a side that had clearly been second best.
They'll need a bit of luck, of course, if they are stay up but then both of these sides will need to improve if they are to achieve their respective targets between now and November.
BOHEMIANS: Kelly; Heary, Hawkins (McGuinness, 26 mins), McNally, Webb; Ryan (Morrison, 74 mins), Hunt, Caffrey, Harkin; Doyle (Ward, 84 mins), Crowe.
UCD: O'Neill; Donnelly, McDonnell, McNally, McAuley; Sullivan, Martin, O'Donnell (Rooney, 48 mins), Davey; Griffin,Cawley.
Referee: I Stokes (Dublin)
