Finn Harps 2
Bohemians 1
Alan Foley at Finn Park
FINN HARPS CAME from behind to overcome Bohemians on a night of three well-taken goals at Finn Park.
It was a useful three points for the home team amid the fiercest of relegation dogfights with goals from Eddie Dsane and Sean Houston sealing the victory after Dinny Corcoran opened the scoring for the Dalymount Park residents.
The visitors took the lead with a splendid goal from Corcoran, who volleyed home first time across Harps goalkeeper Ciaran Gallagher after a neat dinked diagonal ball from Keith Ward. The concession dirtied Gallagher’s clean sheet on his 200th appearance for the Ballybofey club.
That came on 29 minutes and just a minute later Shane Supple, the Bohemians netminder, had to dash from his line to block Gareth Harkin’s shot on goal after a smart pass from Caolan McAleer.
Harps got back on terms with a fantastic goal of their own. Dsane, who opened his season’s account with a free-kick at United Park against Drogheda United a week beforehand, scythed a crisp shot from the edge of the penalty area into the bottom corner as McAleer’s centre was headed clear on 34 minutes.
Keith Long’s team had been on a decent run of form of late, picking up 10 points from four outings prior to a 1-0 loss at Dundalk’s hands last Wednesday week.
The hosts went close inside of five minutes when Packie Mailey got a header onto a free-kick from McAleer, only for Supple to save comfortably.
It was a goal apiece at the interval, with Supple ensuring his side went on in terms with a save down low at his near post from McAleer in first half injury-time and Dsane daisy-cutting one just wide from Paddy McCourt’s pass.
McCourt was marginally over the crossbar at the start of part two as Supple punched a deep ball in from Barry Molloy.
On 58 minutes, the team managed by Ollie Horgan went ahead and at the time it was no more than they deserved through Houston, who set the tone for the move with a committed challenge on Fuad Sule.
McAleer was typically involved and his squared ball found McCourt just over 20 yards from goal. The former Celtic and Derry City winger, with time in what should’ve been a congested area, played a fabulous pass into a pocket of space for Houston to slot home.
Despite creating little, Bohemians could have drawn level when Ward centred but with indecision in the Harps defence, nobody put their name on it as no visiting took a punt and the ball trickled across the face of goal.
Dsane wasn’t far off with a free-kick six minutes from time before making way for Harps’ new signing, French-born Ibrahim Div-Keïta. Gallagher saved well in a cluttered area from Ian Morris in the latter stages as Harps held on through six minutes of injury time to post the win to put them four points above the dropzone.
FINN HARPS: Ciaran Gallagher; Damien McNulty, Packie Mailey, Kilian Cantwell, Ciaran Coll; Caolan McAleer, Gareth Harkin, Barry Molloy, Eddie Dsane (Ibrahim Div-Keïta); Sean Houston, Danny Morrissey (Paddy McCourt 42).
BOHEMIANS: Shane Supple; Dan Casey, Rob Comwall, Daniel Byrne, Ian Morris; George Poynton, Fuad Sule (Oscar Brennan 65),Philip Gannon, Lorcan Fitzgerald (Ishmail Akinade 75); Dinny Corcoran, Keith Ward.
Referee: Derek Tomney.
