Premier Division: Bohemians 5 (Hickey 47, Parsons 50, James-Taylor 53, Tierney 79, 88) Derry City 3 (Duffy 34, 90 pen Smith 62)
Plenty to cover at Dalymount Park as Bohemians kept pace with St Patrick’s Athletic in pursuit of Shamrock Rovers at the top of the League of Ireland.
Rovers are resting this weekend ahead of their Uefa Conference League playoff second-leg in Finland on Thursday, so St Pat’s reduced the champions’ lead to four points with their 2-0 win in Drogheda.
Bohs are three points behind St Pat’s with the old rivals meeting in an FAI Cup quarter-final at Richmond Park on Saturday week.
Derry City’s nightmare year continued to unravel. All the ingredients are there to pull a cup run from the fire in the coming weeks, but there is a brittleness to this expensively-compiled squad.
RM Block
The most bizarre act on the night came when former Bohemians attacker James Clarke needlessly cut down Connor Parsons under the nose of referee Robert Harvey 10 minutes into the second half when Derry were already reeling from conceding three goals in five minutes. The red card was straight out of Harvey’s pocket.
It could have been worse. Timing might have saved Brooklyn Lyons-Foster from another straight red when he appeared to catch Harry Vaughan with an elbow.
Before the succession of headless acts, Derry were actually in control, leading 1-0 at half-time.
With Tiernan Lynch sacked and James McClean on his couch posting images from Arsenal versus Coventry City, as he nurses a chronic hip issue, the crisis that has engulfed the Candystripes all summer appeared to be over.
Mark Connolly’s double jobbing as director of football and interim manager was, briefly, paying dividends. As it should, when he has Michael Duffy raiding off the left, Barry Cotter on the other side, and Clarke through the middle.
How did this group not click under Lynch? The answer was provided early in the second-half, when Derry coughed up the three goals before Clarke’s silly foul.
It was Cotter who took the wind out of Dalymount 10 minutes before half-time, when he stormed down the right and squared for Duffy to score his eighth goal of the season.
It looked so easy for Derry. Duffy had already got behind Bohs’ defence, punishing a slip by Patrick Hickey, only to see Paul Girard-Walters deny Clarke with a one-handed save.
Bohemians were sharper from the kick-off as Vaughan proved a menace in behind Douglas James-Taylor, who really should have scored after 19 minutes.
Senan Mullen did most of the damage as an attacking left back. Normally a centre half, the 21-year-old’s loan from Torino took on increased value with each raid into the Derry box. Either side of Duffy’s goal, Mullen created James-Taylor’s chance and smashed a shot off the crossbar.
Somehow, two minutes after the break, Derry left Hickey unmarked – all six foot six inches of him – to head home a Flores corner.
A complete lack of concentration was punished moments later when Dawson Devoy clipped a free-kick for Parsons, again unmarked in the Derry box, to finish.
Before Connolly could react on the sideline, the game appeared to be over as James-Taylor made it 3-1 from another Flores corner.
Tyler Smith did pull one back for Derry just after the hour, but the 4,042-strong Bohs crowd was in full voice when Ross Tierney evaded Brian Maher to make it 4-2.
Tierney saved the best for last with his ninth goal of the campaign, a classy long-range effort into the top corner of Brian Maher’s goal.
Duffy rolled in a penalty in injury-time to complete the eight goal romp but it was meaningless.
BOHEMIANS: Girard-Walters; Power (Morahan 90), Hickey, Byrne, Mullen; Devoy, Flores (McDonnell 82); Tierney, Vaughan (Myers 73), Parsons (Strods 82); James-Taylor (Whelan 73).
DERRY CITY: Maher; Cotter (Fleming 61), Barr, P McClean, Lyons-Foster (Burns 84); Chapman (Olayinka 61), Twisk (Drummingan 61), O’Reilly, Duffy; Clarke; Smith.
Referee: R Harvey.
