Bohemians were left to concede that their ambition to win the club's first title in 20 years had been dashed after a superb recovery by UCD brought a damaging defeat at Belfield yesterday.
It was only Bohemians' second loss of the league season, but they are already 11 points behind leaders St Patrick's Athletic. In a lacklustre first half, Bohemians' goalkeeper, Michael Dempsey, had to be alert to save a well-struck Ciaran Kavanagh shot in the seventh minute, before Bohemians' more organised approach saw them dominate until the interval.
The prodigal Brendan Markey wasted two good chances for Bohemians, while Tony O'Connor had a goal disallowed when he slotted in the rebound after Eoin Mullen's shot hit the crossbar. Bohemians did get the breakthrough they deserved five minutes before the interval when Tommy Byrne's cross in from the left ran to Brian Mooney who scored a simple goal with a sidefoot shot from 10 yards out.
It was a different match in the second-half as UCD came out to play. They were level within nine minutes when Robert Griffin headed home at the back post from a Mick O'Byrne free-kick.
Dempsey then had to keep his side in the match with three excellent saves before UCD's revival was completed with what proved their winning goal from Jason Sherlock on 75 minutes.
