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Bohemians 5 Dundalk 0
Friday, 01 May 2009 07:38
Sean Connor’s return to Dalymount Park was a miserable one as his Dundalk side were not only dispatched by a rampant Bohemians, but also finished the game with nine men.

The gulf in class was palpable and the 5-0 nil scoreline actually could have been worse.  The dismissal of former Gypsy, Harpal Singh, and the loss of Michael Daly with a suspected broken leg added insult to injury for the former Bohs boss.

With 72 minutes on the clock the League Champions were only one goal to the good, but by the end of this bizarre match they had netted another four, every one of those coming from the boot of the prolific Jason Byrne.

Byrne slotted a penalty home on 73 minutes and after Daly left the pitch, leaving Dundalk with nine as they had used their three substitutes, the former Irish international let loose by netting another three.

One of those came in the final five minutes and the other two came in frantic injury time period. Connor, by the end of the rout, must have been wishing for the Dalymount pitch to swallow him up.

The seeds for victory had been sown in the opening half and it was another familiar name on the all-time League of Ireland goalscoring charts, Glen Crowe, who got the show on the road by netting his second of the season.   

The visitors named three former Gypsies in their starting eleven and another two on the bench as Connor went with an ambitious system with two outright strikers, a dangerous ploy given the task facing his side.

Cork City and Derry City were the only teams in the division to get any points at Dalymount in the opening series of games and if the Louthmen were to match the feat then surely a more conservative approach would have been the better option, at least in the early stages.

Yet for much of those opening exchanges Bohs struggled to get a grip apart from a well worked Gary Deegan chance on 18 minutes.

A hopeful punt forward by Owen Heary was knocked down by Crowe and Deegan showed much poise to take the ball and unleash a left foot drive that had Chris Bennion scampering to his left.

The frustration continued for the home crowd and with 30 minutes on the clock Connor would have been delighted with how the night was going, even with the blow of losing the experienced Dave Rogers through a hamstring injury.

Thomas Heary slotted into the back four, but Michael Coburn obviously wasn’t happy filling the gap left by Rogers judging by the mistake that led to the opening goal of the night.

Struggling on his left side, the centre-half made a calamitous decision of electing to pass the ball back to his goalkeeper.  Instead he found Byrne and striker was able to find his partner, Crowe, who slotted the ball home from close range.

All the good work had been undone by a lapse in concentration and, in truth, for the final quarter, and the rest of the game, the champions took complete control.  They didn’t add to their tally before the break, but they should have.

Byrne nearly scored a spectacular second when he flashed a volley inches over the bar and Ken Oman somehow put a header over from five yards when he got on the end of a Paul Keegan corner.

Dundalk would a need a full compliment to thread water in the second period, but they were reduced to ten only 9 minutes after the resumption when Singh received two bookings in the space of three minutes.

The first he could have argued was harsh as he remonstrated with the referee over what looked a nasty challenge on Chris Turner.  The second was a little more forward when he clipped Killian Brennan.

Things threatened to boil over as Turner seemed to lead with an elbow in a clash with Brian Shelley and the former Bohs man was lucky to escape without his second yellow for another clash seconds later.

Under so much pressure, the visitors were always in danger of capitulating and when the impressive Graham Carey was taken down inside the box late on that was the cue for the floodgates to open.

Byrne netted from twelve yards and after running onto to an Anto Murphy throw-in he had his second.  Injury time produced more fireworks and by the end of the night Byrne was sitting pretty at the summit of the goalscoring charts with 10 to his name.

Bohemians: B Murphy; Shelley, Heary, Oman, Powell; Brennan, Deegan (McGuinness, 89), Keegan, Carey (A Murphy 75); Byrne, Crowe (Fenn, 86).

Dundalk: Bennion; Kelly, Coburn, Rogers (Heary, 21), Synnott; Rowe (O’Brien, 55), O’Callaghan, Turner, Singh; Mansaram, Mulvenna (Daly, 46).

Ref: A Buttimer (Cork).
 
 
 
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