Bohemians 2
Sligo Rovers 2
IT’S EXCITING AND unnerving and thrilling and promising and frustrating and oh my god it is so frustrating but it’s back, baby.
Fans of Bohemians and Sligo Rovers ran the full gambit of Friday night-patented emotions at Dalymount Park tonight, at the end of which the teams left with a point each and supporters were reminded why they hate to love this thing so much.
Bohs took the lead in the first five minutes and salvaged it from Sligo in second-half injury time, having trailed at half-time to goals from Reece Hutchinson and Fabrice Hartmann. Both sides arguably did more to lose the game than win it: a draw was a fair result.
Dalymount Park was blanketed with a kind of pre-game pessimism that sits uneasily on the first day of the season, given this is the one time of year when heady hope and optimism enjoy listed status. But not so at Bohs. The incongruity of their gloom was some amalgam of last season’s poor league form, an FAI Cup final hangover, and the underwhelming sum of their off-season business.
The headline act of the transfer window was the sale of last season’s top scorer Jonathan Afolabi, with uncertainty general around the ground as to how able a deputy Estonian international Sten Reinkort would prove.
It was quickly blown away, given Reinkort fired Bohs in front within the first five minutes. It was a slick move: first Reinkort dropped off to pop the ball to James Clarke before then running in behind to take the return pass, which he then deftly flicked beyond Ed McGinty and into the top corner of the net.
Cue bedlam to mock the pre-game mood. One Bohs fan danced in one of the Jodi Stand’s aisles singing of how they were about to win the league. Reinkort’s goal crowned a lively Bohs start, with Adam McDonnell firing narrowly wide from range.
Sligo fans spent their own off-season fretting, though the aburpt return of striker Max Mata went a long way to boosting their mood. Having clung grimly on during Bohs’ fast start, they slowly found their footing in the game, primarily down their right flank, where right-back Reece Hutchinson and winger Simon Power dovetailed to trouble Bohs right-back, Bartlomiej Kukulowicz. That avenue proved to be Sligo’s route to an equaliser, with Hutchinson following into the penalty area and seeing his shot pinball from goalkeeper Kacper Chorazka and onto him before rolling over the line.
Bohemians’ struggle to reassert control, and were shocked to find themselves behind at half-time when Chorazka allowed Fabrice Hartmann’s shot squirm beneath him and into the net. The goal arrived in first-half stoppage time; Bohs left to a few boos and then a reflexive rallying call.
Declan Devine rejigged things at the break. Kukulowicz was put out of his misery and replaced by Brian McManus, which saw Estonian international Michael Lilander shuffle to right -back and Jordan Flores drop to centre-back. Sligo still fizzed with energy, mind, and Power’s rabona cross from the right wing went sadly unconverted. Bohs had a paucity of creativity in comparison, summed up when Reinkort dropped off to the halfway line and held the ball up while gesticulating to any team-mate who might provide an option. He waited, waited, waited…and nobody arrived.
James Clarke eventually provided a spark, picking the ball up between the lines and serpenting his way to goal. Nando Pijnaker fouled Clarke right on the edge of the box, and McGinty then flung himself to his left to divert Flores’ low, driven free-kick over the bar.
No goal, but it was proof at least that Bohemians could create chances if they could get Clarke on the ball in advanced positions. Their problem was less that they didn’t know what to do, but that they couldn’t do it: too often they lacked the guile in midfield to progress the ball to Clarke. With Sligo happy to defend their league, Bohs play descended to a miasma of slow, backward passing, at which Dalymount openly bridled.
Another of Bohs’ Estonian contingent, Martin Miller, was sprung from the bench and he almost created an equaliser, when his cross to the back post for teenage striker Nickson Okosun was headed against his own post by Hutchinson.
Sligo dropped deeper and deeper as the finishing line crept into view, but it looked as if they would be their own greatest threat: McGinty misjudged an aimless flores long ball to concede a corner from which Clarke acrobatically arched a volley wide.
The fourth official flashed up seven minutes added time and Dalymount forgot its frustration to turn fervent instead. Sligo continued to squat on the edge of their box and halfway through stoppage time Bohs finally picked the lock. Dylan Connolly skated down the right wing and pulled back a pinpoint cross to the box, which was met by Clarke, arriving perfectly on time to steer a header beyond McGinty.
Bohs fans roared for an improbable endgame, but referee Rob Harvey blew his whistle and everyone went off to fortify themselves for their next Friday night out.
Bohemians: Kacper Chorazka; Bartlomeij Kukulowicz (Brian McManus, HT), Rob Cornwall (Michael Lilander, 33′), Cian Byrne, Paddy Kirk; Adam McDonnell, Jordan Flores (captain); Dayle Rooney (Martin Miller, 75′), James Clarke, Danny Grant (Dylan Connolly, 61′); Sten Reinkort (Nickson Okosun, 61′)
Sligo Rovers: Ed McGinty; JR Wilson, Nando Pijnkaer, Oliver Denham, Reece Hutchinson; Niall Morahan (captain), Ellis Chapman (Kailin Barlow, 81′), Fabrice Hartmann (Will Fitzgerald, 62′), Connor Malley; Simon Power, Max Mata
Referee: Rob Harvey
Attendance: 4,432