Bohemians 3
Sligo Rovers 2
TWO LATE GOALS from Kurtis Byrne and Stephen Best saw Bohemians overcome 10-man Sligo Rovers at Dalymount Park tonight.
Both sides made two changes from Friday’s fixtures with Dean Delany and Ismahil Akinade returning to the Bohs side while Sligo top scorer Raffaele Cretaro dropped to the bench.
But they didn’t miss the Tubbercurry man too much as they were first to really impose themselves on the game and took the lead on four minutes.
After a cross from the right to the far post, Jake Kelly completely mis-kicked his clearance. The ball fell to Kieran Sadlier down the inside left channel, and he punished the Bohs winger, firing across Delany and into the far corner of the net.
Then, on 22 minutes, Gavin Peers was given his marching orders by Anthony Buttimer, after he lunged in on Akinade and was adjudged to have been the last man in the defence.
Bohs sought to take advantage straight away, as a searching cross from Derek Pender nearly found its way to Eoin Wearen, but a despairing last-ditch header from Michael Leahy preserved Sligo’s lead.
But it was the men from the north-west who took advantage of more woeful defending from Bohs, as Liam Martin ghosted into between the central-defensive pairing of Derek Prendergast and Stephen Best to shoot underneath Delany. The goalkeeper could only deflect the weak shot towards the bottom corner, where the ball snuck in despite the best efforts of Lorcan Fitzgerald.
The hosts finally made their numerical advantage pay two minutes before the break, however. Roberto Lopes broke into the box and after his efforts were blocked twice, the ball found its way back to Akinade just inside the area, and he hit a well-placed shot into the bottom corner to half the deficit.
The Gypsies began the second period on the front foot, as Wearen spotted Pender getting forward down the right, before he sent in a dipping cross that was met by Akinade, but his header looped over.
Bohs should’ve drawn level moments later though. Pender got forward again as he crossed to find Roberto Lopes completely unmarked, but the attacker could only head straight at Sligo stopper Micheál Schlingermann.
Akinade then had another great chance to level the game up as he powered his way towards goal to shoot, but his effort was somehow cleared off the line, before substitute Kurtis Byrne couldn’t find a way past the combination of Leahy and Gary Boylan, who hacked clear.
Sligo’s resistance was finally broken three minutes from time though, as Byrne made amends for his earlier miss, scoring a wonderful free-kick.
Wearen was fouled right on the edge of the Sligo area by Pat McCann and Byrne lifted his free kick over the wall and into the top corner.
Keith Long’s men weren’t finished though, and they secured the win in injury time, as Akinade headed back across goal from a Lorcan Fitzgerald corner where Best was waiting to turn into an empty net.
BOHEMIANS: Dean Delaney; Derek Pender (c), Derek Prendergast (Mark Quigley, 72), Stephen Best, Lorcan Fitzgerald; Paddy Kavanagh (Kurtis Byrne, 55), Roberto Lopes, Eoin Wearen, Keith Buckley, Jake Kelly (Dean O’Halloran, 63); Ismahil Akinade.
SLIGO ROVERS: Micheál Schlingermann; Tobi Adebayo-Rowling, Gavin Peers, Michael Leahy, Jimmy Keohane; Kieran Sadlier (Gary Boylan, 25), Pat McCann, Craig Roddan (c),Liam Martin, Daniel Kearns; Achille Campion (Raffaele Cretaro, 78).
Referee: Anthony Buttimer
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