National LeagueShelbourne 1 Bohemians 1With just three points to show for the three games since the end of their European campaign allowed them to concentrate fully on the defending their title, the extent of Shelbourne's determination to avoid another defeat was all too evident last night at Tolka Park where an inspired second-half performance, and a fine Jason Byrne goal, edged the league leaders a little closer to the title.
Emmet Malone
at Tolka Park
Having come here needing to build on Monday's win at Dalymount, Bohemians had their chances to compound their neighbours' misery and close the gap at the top to just five points with six games remaining.
Tony Grant gave the visitors the lead late in the first half but despite playing for an hour with 10 men after the dismissal of Stuart Byrne, the hosts battled their way from behind to a point they comfortably deserved.
The draw means that Cork City now look the most serious threat to their ambitions although Pat Dolan's side would need to win their two games in hand and their clash with Shelbourne in Dublin to slash their rivals' current lead to just one point.
Fenlon made two changes to the side that lost earlier in the week but he was soon having to intervene from his vantage point in the stand again as first Alan Moore limped out of the action just 20 minutes in and then Stuart Byrne left referee Alan Kelly with no alternative but to dismiss him after an awful challenge on Bobby Ryan.
Crawford came in for Moore, who suffered a recurrence of the Achilles problem and may not miss the remainder of the season, while the sending off 10 minutes later prompted a reshuffle in which Jason Byrne dropped back into midfield.
The lively attacking threat posed by the home side when in possession early on evaporated almost immediately and the 15 minutes that followed represented Bohemians' best spell.
James Keddy and Damien Lynch were suddenly dominating in the middle of the field while Ryan continued to put the locals under considerable pressure with his floated crosses from out on the right.
Shelbourne's back four were reduced to hitting the ball hard and long downfield in an attempt to buy time but the predictable result was a steady supply of possession for the visiting side who began to knock the ball around quite well.
Still, it seemed that Fenlon's men were going to survive to the half-time break until only a few seconds remained on the clock and Ryan's angled cross from the right found Glen Crowe at the far post from where the ball was headed down for Grant to finish from no more than a couple of yards out.
Needing to rescue Fitzpatrick from his isolation, Fenlon pushed Ollie Cahill on from left back to his usual slot on the left wing while Jason Byrne returned to his starting position.
Perhaps the best chance of an equaliser came 62 minutes in, though, when Fitzpatrick beat the offside trap thanks to Cawley's fine low through ball only for the striker to pass straight to a defender as Byrne stormed into the area.
The club's leading scorer took matters into his own hands 11 minutes later with Byrne finding the bottom right corner with a sweetly struck free from the edge of the area after Keddy had been penalised for a pull on Crawford.
Bohemians sought to grab the two points back by throwing men forward and the balance of the game certainly shifted slightly back in their favour.
As the hosts reverted to 4-4-1, however, they managed no more than a couple of serious chances and never really looked like getting the winner they needed.
SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Harris, Rogers, Cahill; Cawley, S Byrne, Moore (Crawford, 21 mins), Hoolahan (Doherty, 82 mins); J Byrne, Fitzpatrick (Rowe, 87 mins).
BOHEMIANS: Gregg; Rice, Hawkins (McNally, 64 mins), Heary, Webb; Ryan, Lynch, Keddy, Morrison (Hunt, 87 mins); Grant (Foley, 87 mins), Crowe.
Referee: A Kelly (Cork).
