Bohemians 0 - 0 UCD

• Cathal Breathnach
• Sat, May 01 2010


Chances were few and far between as Bohemians and UCD played out a goalless draw at Dalymount Park on Friday night.

It will be Martin Russell who will no doubt be the happier of the two managers as UCD collected an unlikely point in a game which many expected Bohs to win comfortably.

In a game dominated by UCD’s defenders Bohs created little and, on reflection, Pat Fenlon would have to admit that a draw was a fair result.

It was UCD who had the first real chance of the game when Andy Boyle went close for the visitors. Ciaran Kilduff went even closer for UCD just three minutes later, his curling effort went just wide of Barry Murphy’s left-hand post.

Referee Alan Kelly showed his first card of the game just after the half hour mark when UCD’s Sean Harding was rather harshly shown a yellow.

Kelly may have awarded a penalty to the home side just seconds later when Mark Quigley fired a shot into a group of UCD defenders. “Handball” was the cry from the Bohs faithful but Kelly was having none of it and waved away the protests.

With the half-time whistle fast approaching, Bohs created their first real chance when Brian Shelley and Paul Keegan combined well before the ball fell to Quigley. Unfortunately for Bohs, the former St Pat’s man could only direct his effort straight down the throat of Billy Brennan in the UCD goal.

Neither manager made a change at half-time and unfortunately for everyone in attendance, the second half provided little to shout about.

Quigley continued to frustrate the home fans with his mazy runs which ultimately led to him losing possession. However, he came close to breaking the deadlock with a superb effort from 25-yards out which scraped the outside of Brennan’s post and bounced out for a goal-kick.

Bohs were beginning to get a grip on proceedings but they still couldn’t manage to properly test Brennan in the UCD goal. Fenlon decided to change things on the hour mark when he replaced Glenn Cronin with Paddy Madden.

Keegan nearly put through his own net after some lovely build-up play from UCD. A superb through ball from the man of the match on the night, Greg Bolger, found the feet of David McMillan in the Bohs box.

McMillan squared the ball across the six-yard box but Keegan was there to clear the ball just over his own crossbar. From the resulting corner, McMillan was inches away from scoring. He rose highest in the box but his header just drifted wide.

Substitute Killian Brennan had a chance to earn Bohs all three points with a free- kick on the edge of the UCD box with just minutes remaining. However, his effort was comfortably blocked by the UCD defence.

And so it finished scoreless at Dalymount Park, a result which lifts Bohs one place to fourth in the Airtricity League while UCD stay in seventh place.

Bohemians: B.Murphy; Shelley, Rossiter, McGuinness, Oman; A.Murphy (Brennan 69), Cronin (Madden 60), Keegan, Higgins; Byrne, Quigley (Greene 74).
Substitutes not used: Powell, O’Connor.

UCD: Brennan; Harding, Shortall, Boyle, E.McMillan; Bolger, McMahon (Creevy 80), Corry, Mulhall; D.McMillan (Wilson 85), Kilduff.
Substitutes not used: Nangle, Rusk, Barron.

Referee: Alan Kelly (Cork)

Extratime Man of the Match: Greg Bolger (UCD)