- Tom O'Connor
- Mon, Apr 25 2016
A disappointing afternoon for Liam Burns and his team as Bohemians came to Sandy Lane and defeated Dundalk’s Under 17s by two goals to one. The game took a long time to settle down as both sides struggled to play a flowing brand of football. Indeed it took until the seventeenth minute for any goalmouth action to excite the crowd as Bohemians full back Flavio Marku saw his free kick drift long and barely over the Dundalk crossbar.
Two minutes later, a chance popped up at the other end of the pitch as Jordan Kelly pounced on some loose play at the back by the Bohemians defence but he couldn’t trouble the goalkeeper as his shot from the edge of the box drifted wide. The play became broken for the middle part of the half as neither side were able to take a hold on proceedings. However, the 32nd minute saw action at both ends of the pitch as first Jordan Kelly headed over the crossbar before Luke Murphy came bravely out of his goal to thwart a Bohemians attack.
Six minutes later and the deadlock was broken. Some sharp interplay on the edge of the Dundalk box saw Dunne play in Nolan and the winger calmly slipped the ball past the advancing Murphy from 10 yards.
The second half began with no major incidents as both teams cancelled each other out and defences were on top. In the 61st minute, Hanley came up from the back to head a corner over Luke Murphy’s crossbar while 3 minutes later Shane Gregory raced down the right wing but his dangerous pull back was just behind the onrushing Kelly and Bohemians cleared the danger. A minute later saw the away side double their lead as Aghinita capitalized on a miskick in the defence to fire the ball home.
At two nil down, Liam Burns turned to the bench and Kilgallon and Corcoran replaced Finnegan and Mooney. Ten minutes later Semelevicius took the place of Jack O’Keefe who had played yesterday for Martin Connolly’s Under 19s. The changes almost reaped dividends as Shane Gregory ‘s low shot from just inside the area was well saved by Mc Carthy. Indeed, the keeper had dealt securely with all of Dundalk’s efforts throughout the game. With ten minutes to go, Luke Gorham replaced Shane Gregory and Jordan Kelly had another effort on target. Once more the keeper was equal to the task, as was Luke Murphy who made a great save after Aghinita and Mebdou linked up well.
However, Mc Carthy was deprived of his clean sheet in the final minute as Dundalk’s number 9 was fouled in the box and he stood up to drive the penalty into the top right hand corner of the net. Kelly finally getting his just rewards for his efforts all afternoon. However, it was ultimately to be in vain as Dundalk couldn’t grab the equalizer and the visitors left with all three points.
Dundalk FC: Luke Murphy, Liam Jackson, Jack Reid, James Prendergast, Andrew Mooney, Thomas Martin, Adam Finnegan, Scott Prendergast, Jack O’Keefe, Shane Gregory, Jordan Kelly
Subs: Tauvydas Semelevicius, Mark Kilgallon, Ryan Kavanagh, Danny Corcoran, Luke Gorham (all used) Unused Sub- Jack Mc Kenna
Bohemians FC: Paul Mc Carthy, Flavio Marku, Eoin Doyle, Shay Curley, Jamie Hanley, Stephen Morley, Ilyes Mebdou, Aaron Townley, Gabi Aghinita, Robbie Dunne, Steven Nolan
Subs: Gary Dunne, Yassine En Ne Yah (both used) Luke Ring, Eoghan Maloney (both unused)
