Pat Fenlon sprung Jason Byrne and Raffaele Cretaro off the bench and two of last year's most prolific strikers turned the tables on the newly promoted students, who at that stage were competing with ten men after their goalscorer Greg Bolger was dismissed.

And how they were punished with two stunning strikes within 30 seconds of each other leaving Billy Brennan wondering what he had done to deserve such luck.

The UCD stopper had no chance with either goal, as Chris O'Connor took an 81st minute free kick quickly and found Cretaro who beat Andy Boyle in the air and laid the ball on to the onrushing Byrne. He played a one-two with Glenn Cronin before rifling an unstoppable rising drive into the net.

And the travelling fans' relief shortly turned to ecstasy as Cretaro won the ball back after the restart and beat Brennan with a low curling shot from the edge of the area.

Relief then, for Fenlon's men who had struggled to break down the boys in blue for long periods of this match.

They were limited to half chances throughout the first half, with Owen Heary going closest with a header from Paul Keegan's corner that was cleared off the line by Stephen Roche.

Scoreless at the break, it was the students who took an unlikely lead eleven minutes into the second half as Ciaran Kilduff beat Chris O'Connor to Chris Mulhall's perfect through ball and the striker crumpled after going over the Australian stopper. Bolger converted cooly to give Martin Russell's side the lead.

But his night was over twelve minutes later as having been booked late in the first half, he foolishly kicked the ball away after fouling Mark Quigley, giving Thomas Connolly little choice but to send him off.

Fenlon acted almost instantly sending Cretaro on before Byrne made his bow with fifteen minutes remaining.

With the pressure building, Quigley had a shot blocked brilliantly by Andy Boyle and Gareth McGlynn somehow missed from almost the goal line. But they wouldn't regret those missed chances as Byrne and Cretaro performed a double act that will send chills up defences' spines up and down the country.

UCD -- Brennan; Shortall (Leahy 65), Boyle, E McMillan, Nangle; Mulhall, Ward (Creevey 45), Bolger, Roche, Rusk (D McMillan 85); Kilduff.
BOHEMIANS --O'Connor; Heary; Gray (Byrne 76), Shelley (Murphy 58), Powell; McGlynn, Cronin, Keegan, Brennan; Quigley, Madden (Cretaro 60).
REFEREE -- T Connolly (Dublin).