Bohemians 4
Derry City 2
DEREK PRENDERGAST, KEITH Buckley, Ishmail Akinade and Robbie Creevy all struck inside 21 minutes for the home side to finish any hopes Derry City had of taking three points back home but they went down fighting and playing better football than the victors.
It was the northerners who got off to a better start and had Bohemians under the cosh for the first ten minutes with dangerous crosses from Mark Timlin and Stephen Dooley creating real problems at the back but that spell came to an end in the 11th minute.
The first goal was courtesy of the centre-halves’ union after Akinade, who had a part to play in all four, had a shot on the turn which was deflected wide by Barry McNamee for the first corner of the game.
Paddy Kavanagh took the kick to the far post which was headed down by the ageless Dave Mulcahy and Derek Prendergast was there to smash the ball home from about two yards out.
Within 60 seconds the men in black and red were celebrating again after Derry City lost possession from the tip-off, Akinade pounced and played a perfect ball into the path of Buckley who finished nicely and first time under the body of Ger Doherty whose only touch of leather before that was to pick the ball out of the net.
The supplier turned scorer just four minutes later when he latched on to a long sweeping pass from Kavanagh and chested it down on the run before hitting a peach of a volley past Doherty who must have been wondering if his defenders had actually clocked in before kick-off.
The goalkeeper had to take some blame for the next one when he punched the ball down into the box were Kealan Dillon was loitering and the midfielder smashed it towards the back post where Creevy was waiting to turn the ball in.
Cillian Morrison hit the woodwork twice after that and when Akinade went off with a shoulder injury, which turned out not to be too serious, just before half-time it seemed to give the away team a lift as they came out all guns blazing for the second-half.
Just three minutes after the restart, Timlin cut in off the flank and skipped past Mulcahy before firing a sweet left-footed shot past Dean Delany from the edge of the box which looked to set his team up for the comeback of all comebacks.
Confidence was growing within the Derry ranks who were playing the better football and were denied a third when Delany made a brilliant save to stop a Patrick McEleney shot while Ryan McBride headed a corner off the bar.
The second goal eventually came when Rob Cornwall passed the ball through a sleepy Bohemians’ defence before Derry’s best player, Timlin, slotted the ball in at the back post.
Despite the loss, the sight of Doherty up for a corner in injury time and watching their team playing some very good football will give the visiting fans hope that their team really are up for the fight to move away from those relegation spots.
Bohemians: Delany; Lopes, Prendergast, Mulcahy, Best; Kavanagh, Creevy, Dillon (Wearen 58), Moore (Evans 70), Buckley; Akinade (Byrne 45+3). Substitutes: Steacy, Hayes, Evans, O’Brien, Caffrey.
Derry City: Doherty; Dooley (Curtis 80); Jarvis, McBride, S.McEleney, McNamee, P.McEleney, Morrison (Quigley 80), Cornwall, Timlin, Barry. Substitutes: Patton, Daniels, Curran, Sharkey.