Bohemians 0 Shamrock Rovers 2
Bohemians’ big run of wins over their cros-ity rivals was suddenly made to seem like fairly ancient history here as goals from Graham Burke and Aaron Greene moved Shamrock Rovers to within one game of a 25th FAI Cup success.
The home side were generally second best over the course of the night and might be said to have had few complaints at the end over the outcome. These Dublin derbies don’t quite work like that, though, and they are likely to start their post mortems with the refereeing error that handed Rovers the corner that led to the opening goal.
What could have been a great occasion fell well short of that in the end. It was a scrappy game punctuated by delays for flares to be removed or emotions to be calmed. On the pitch, it wasn’t actually all that bad although Danny Mandroiu was dismissed for a reckless challenge on Sean Kavanagh 14 minutes from time but when Rovers got their second not long after that, a small minority of the home support got onto the pitch in front of the Rovers fans and, in a couple of cases, ended up having violent confrontations with stewards or Gardai.
It was a disappointing way for such an eagerly anticipated evening to pan out although nobody in the Rovers camp looked overly concerned as they celebrated having made it to the club’s 34th final at the end. Their goals were good, too, especially that second one, a clattering close range finish by Greene after Ronan Finn had done brilliantly to get down the line and then turn a cross that was almost impossible to deal with across the edge of the six yard box.
It came as a cruel blow to the hosts who still must have held out every hope of saving themselves.
They had already been trying to haul themselves level for almost all of the game having conceded just five minutes in. From a Rovers point of view, it was a very well executed opener with Jack Byrne curling in a corner his side should never have had, given that the ball had gone out off Aaron Greene, and Burke did well to direct his header to just inside the left hand post although Keith Buckley, who standing just there, really should have kept it out.
Such an influential figure for Bohemians these days, Buckley, in his first game back after a four week lay-off, looked well off the pace here generally and around him his teammates had to battle hard to get a foot in things as Rovers worked very hard to press opponents in every area of the pitch.
It didn’t make for much of a spectacle but it was certainly effective. What little the locals did manage to create by way of attacking play came down their right where Mandroiu drifted out wide to link up with Sean Pender and Ryan Graydon.
Mandroiu was the subject of a loud but groundless penalty appeal from the stand but it was Graydon who had the home side’s best chance of the first half after getting beyond Sean Kavanagh and into a really good position to shoot only for the 20 year-old to produce a really poor shot.
A couple of very late scrambles aside, Bohemians never came as close to even testing Alan Mannus after that but it could have been worse for the hosts. Joey O’Brien had a second half effort disallowed for offside while Paddy Kirk did quite brilliantly to head a chipped shot from Burke off the line.
In the end, though, it was a very big win for Stephen Bradley’s side whose hopes of silverware will at least be maintained until the very last day of the season. They have come this close in the cup four times since they last won the thing, however, and after their poor results against league champions Dundalk this season, you suspect their fans will be rooting for Sligo in Sunday’s second semi-final.
Bohemians: Talbot; Pender, Cornwall, Finnerty, Kirk; Allardice (Levingston, 64 mins), Buckley (Tierney, 74 mins); Graydon (Ward, 75 mins), Mandroiu, Grant; Wright.
Shamrock Rovers: Mannus; O'Brien, Lopes, Grace; Finn (Lafferty, 85 mins), O'Neill, McEneff, S Kavanagh; Byrne, Greene (Cummins, 90 mins), Burke (Bolger, 88 mins).
Referee: R Hennessy (Clare).
