A fifth penalty in five games saw UCD drop two points at home to Bohs in the Bowl on Friday night, but despite that, manager Pete Mahon will doubtless be happy enough with the point in a game where keeper Matt Gregg came to his side's rescue on several occasions.
With Shane Fitzgerald out through injury, Alan McNally returned to the team to complete the midfield in a 4-5-1 formation. However, Bohs settled by far the quicker, and Neale Fenn, in for the dropped Jason Byrne, hit the bar after five minutes with a header from 12 yards out before going close again a couple of minutes later.
The Students forced a couple of corners in reply, but unusually, the players seemed to be having trouble coming to grips with the formation, with Bohs getting acres of space across the midfield, while all too often, UCD players were getting in each other's way, giving away possession with ease.
Bohs began to really turn the screw on the half hour - first Conor Kenna was booked for a foul on JP Kelly as he burst towards the edge of the box, although the free rebounded to safety off the wall. Neale Fenn then forced a fine save from Matt Gregg at his near post, while Gregg was on hand to save from Crowe two minutes later. The former Bohs keeper was commanding in the air all night as Bohs' many attacks all came to nothing.
Bohs seemed to lose their momentum to a degree over the half time break, and the second half was much more even. Matt Gregg was still called on to make a couple more fines saves, tipping away from Neale Fenn and touching Killian Brennan's 25-yarder over, but it was UCD who took the lead on 76 with their first real attack of note. Alan McNally threaded a ball through to Brian King, and the midfielder came close to breaking his goalscoring duck with a low drive from 20 yards which Murphy got down well to to turn away for a corner. From the corner, Conor Kenna's header was blocked before the ball came out to Derek Doyle on the right wing. His cross to the back post found Pat McWalter, who had better luck with his three yard header to put UCD 1-0 up.
The goal was slightly controversial given that Bohs had a man down injured on the line when Doyle swung in his cross, and this was perhaps in referee Richie Winter's mind thirty seconds later when awarding yet another soft spot kick against the Students. Glen Crowe broke into the box and appeared to go over the ball when being tackled, but Winter immediately pointed to the spot. Matt Gregg was booked for protesting and couldn't make it a hat-trick of penalty saves as Brennan fired the penalty high into the net. UCD manager Pete Mahon was sent off for protesting to the linesman; he merely stepped onto the bank behind the dugout to direct proceedings from there.
The goals finally gave a bit of life to the game, but barring one more excellent save from Gregg, there were no real chances of a winner for either club and a draw, while not necessarily, Bohs may argue, a fair result, was how it finished.
UCD - Gregg, Mahon, Birmingham, Kenna, Shorthall, McNally, Finn (Reilly 73), King, Byrne (Purcell 87), Doyle, McWalter. Subs not used - McMillan, Bolger, Brennan.
Att - 1005
