Bohemians 2
Derry City 2
THIS WAS FARE worth the wait – a floodlight failure at Dalymount forced a 45-minute delay to what was a rip-roaring draw. Bohs blazed a trail from the belated whistle, taking a lead, they squandered before half-time. Michael Duffy’s near-post shot and Danny Mullen’s arcing header overturning James Clarke’s early goal. Jonathan Afolabi converted a second-half penalty to salvage a Bohs draw.
Most enamoured of all may be Shamrock Rovers, as they are now seven points clear of both of these sides, although Derry have a game in hand against UCD.
A local lightning strike knocked out the floodlights and was to blame for the delay to kick-off. The Bohs PA announcer was initially pessimistic about the game happening at all, perhaps managing expectation in telling the not-as-late-as-they-thought arrivals that the game was a “big doubt.”
Then, at around 8.10pm, the ground erupted when the floodlights fizzed and blinked back into life.
The game kicked off at 8.30pm and Bohs started like men furious that they were made to wait. They crashed into tackles and brimmed with an intensity with which Derry couldn’t live. Jonathan Afolabi miscued a glorious chance after only a couple of minutes, oddly tentative in connecting with a ball that broke to him int the six-yard box. This was out of character, as Afolabi muscled his way around the pitch with utter conviction. He dropped off and held up play very well, with Derry’s centre-backs held off in easy abeyance.
Bohs took a deserved lead after 12 minutes, and Afolabi was involved in the choreography. He made a kind of dummy drop-off, coming deep, seemingly to take a Paddy Kirk pass. Instead, with Cameron McJannet drawn with Afolabi and out of position, Kirk skidded the ball through for James Clarke, who ran beyond the last line of defence, held off Mark Connolly, and rolled the ball into the net. Connolly, who needed treatment earlier in the game, was forced off in what must have felt like compounding miseries to Derry supporters.
Derry came into this game off a week of almost extreme despair, beaten on penalties first in the Conference League and then in the FAI Cup. Their downfall across their pair of knockout epics last week was goalscoring, netting only once across 240 minutes. (And that was a penalty.)
But they hauled themselves back into this game with the killer instinct they lacked last week. Paul McMullan initially dribbled into trouble in a thicket of Bohs bodies in the box, but just as soon as he lost the ball he won it back again, cleverly prodding it left to Michael Duffy, who snapped in a near-post shot to equalise. It was Derry’s first shot on target.
Danny Mullan, starting in place of Cian Kavanagh as Derry’s central striker, then wasted a glorious chance to put Derry ahead, taking Patching’s clever reverse pass but swatting a shot wide of the post with only James Talbot to beat. Bohs pinned down Derry in the opening quarter by intensity alone, and so struggled to re-grip the game as the half wore on. They retained an attacking threat, though, and some of the movement and interplay of Afolabi, Clarke and wingers Dylan Connolly and Danny grant was thrilling. Grant should have done better when he beat Derry’s offside trap to run onto a clipped Jordan Flores pass, but miscontrolled out of play. Afolabi, meanwhile, smacked a Connolly cut-back wide and then couldn’t get enough contact on a Grant cut-back from the opposite side.
Derry, however, led at the break. Ciaran Coll whipped a cross into the box from deep on the left wing and Mullen sprang into the air and looped a header over James Talbot. The Bohs ‘keeper stood planted to the ground and turned his head to see the ball drop over him, seeing it all unfold in a kind of baffling slow-motion. It felt the only moment of pause in a hectic first-half.
The second half happily resumed in frenzied cadence. James Talbot sprinted from his goal to cleanly challenge McMullan and bail out Adam McDonnell’s sloppy touch in midfield. Moments later it was McDonnell was sinned against, taken out in the box by Sadou Diallo’s sliding challenge. While Diallo gave away the spot kick and Rob Harvey awarded it, James Clarke created it with a sublime reverse pass.
Brian Maher, surely sick of the sight of penalties, went right as Afolabi went down the middle.
Derry’s responded by finding the throttle. Talbot couldn’t rise to meet Mullen’s looping header but he sprang adroitly into the air to claw away his glancing header, while moments later Ben Doherty sent a shot from the edge of the box cannoning back off the underside of the crossbar.
The game’s pace slackened for the final quarter, with Derry’s attacking play fraying as the night wore on.
The final two minutes were fittingly crammed with drama. Flores gave the ball away and Bohs had to defend a couple of last-ditch corners until they won one of their own. Derry cleared that but the ball came back, finding McDonnell in a baffling amount of space in the box. He took his touch, swung his open body…and curled a shot at Maher. He gratefully grabbed the ball and Derry gratefully grabbed their point.
Shamrock Rovers win means Derry have fallen further behind in the title race but in truth it’s a useful draw: they won’t have many tests as tough as this in the run-in.
Bohemians: James Talbot; Keith Buckley (captain), Krystian Nowak, Kacper Radkowski, Paddy Kirk; Adam McDonnell, Jordan Flores; Dylan Connolly (Declan McDaid, 65′), James Clarke, Danny Grant (Ali Coote, 79′); Jonathan Afolabi (John O’Sullivan, 87′)
Derry City: Brian Maher; Ciaran Coll, Mark Connolly (Shane McEleney, 17′), Cameron McJannet, Ben Doherty; Sadou Diallo (Patrick McEleney, 65′), Adam O’Reilly, Will Patching; Paul McMullan; Danny Mullen (Jamie McGonigle, 79′) , Michael Duffy
Referee: Rob Harvey