Sport

UCD curse their luck as chances slip by

National League/Bohemians - 1 UCD - 1: UCD left Dalymount cursing their finishing as they had to settle for a point as injury…

Paul Buttner At Dalymount
Sat Jul 30 2005 - 01:00

National League/Bohemians - 1 UCD - 1: UCD left Dalymount cursing their finishing as they had to settle for a point as injury-hit Bohemians had John Paul Kelly, their best player on the night, sent off at the death.

Well-organised and hardworking, UCD started brightly but were knocked back as Bohemians' greater initial creativity brought the lead on 20 minutes.

Captain on the night, James Keddy, who had earlier shot over after his first real foray forward from left-back, was pivotal to the goal, working the ball in from the left to pick out Kelly.

Nominally a right winger, Kelly played in the middle with his manager Gareth Farrelly, in the absence of the injured Kevin Hunt, and his strike would have done his absent captain proud; his crisp shot from 22 yards never left the ground before nestling in the corner of Darren Quigley's net.

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Just a minute earlier, Quigley had kept Bohemians out with a good stop off his feet after Farrelly's mishit shot was controlled by Stephen Ward, who turned well to get in his close range shot.

Having taken the lead, Bohemians, with Farrelly struggling with a knock on his favoured left-foot suffered in a tackle with UCD captain Tony McDonnell, allowed UCD back into the match.

Poor defending brought the concession of the equaliser on 26 minutes. The decidedly uncertain Sean Cooney and Keddy failed to clear on the left. Patrick McWalter crossed towards McDonnell who was pushed over by right-back Stephen Rice to concede a penalty confidently driven home by Robbie Martin.

It was a different, and very intriguing, game now with the pace and movement of UCD really troubling the Bohemians defence.

McWalter headed just over from a superb Stephen Hurley cross before Gary Dicker's sublime ball again caught out Bohemians to put Hurley in only for the midfielder to blaze over.

With Farrelly really hobbling from the resumption and about to go off, the Bohemians defence was again split open within three minutes as UCD missed an absolute sitter.

McDonnell knocked down Hurley's free-kick to Mick O'Donnell who somehow sliced wide eight yards from goal.

Kelly ruined his night right on 90 minutes when shown a straight red card for kicking Brian Gannon off the ball.

BOHEMIANS: Gregg; Rice, Oman, Cooney (Palmer, 70 mins), Keddy; Harkin, Kelly, Farrelly (Byrne, 48), Ward; Grant (O'Keeffe, 54), Foley.

UCD: Quigley; Mahon, McNally, Kenna, McEneff; Hurley (Gannon, 86), McDonnell, Dicker, O'Donnell; Martin (Murphy, 80), McWalter.

Referee: D Hancock (Dublin).