UCD 1-1 Bohs

[pineapple stu]

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

[DmanDmythDledge]

Good result against one of the top teams in the league but the performance was nothing to get carried away with. Bohs were very good in the first half and if their finishing had been better we would have been a couple of goals behind. Defence again looked a bit dodgy without McNally but improved in the second half in fairness. Gregg also made a few great saves in the second half which kept us in the game.

We were poor going forward- all of our attacking players had quiet games and contributed very little, although in fairness to Byrne he was playing a role that doesn't suit him. Lukcy to get our goal as Bohs' defenders and keeper seemed to be blocked by the injured man (although I'll have to see on MNS to be fully sure) but, from their point of view, the luck balanced out right after and a draw was the fair result.

At least we still have a bit of momentum after two good draws which will be vital for the game against Galway in two weeks.

[Poor Student]

Non penalties have cost us four points this season so far. In spite of the cliché that kind of luck will not even itself out over the season.

[pineapple stu]

Just the three points.

Edit - unless youre counting the penalty (as opposed to non-penalty) against Derry?

[Poor Student]

Just the three points.

Edit - unless youre counting the penalty (as opposed to non-penalty) against Derry?

Sorry, meant the three.

[colmanthesaint]

Bohs were fairly average, thought they only really had the 3/4 chances in the first half because of Kenna's/Shortall's weakness to any high ball played forward.

Ref was a joke, MNS will show him up very badly tonight.

Otherwise, there was a good crowd and a lot of positives to take from the game. Brian King scrapped for the full 90 mins, Derek Doyle played well, and Gregg is possibly the form goalkeeper in the whole league at the moment.

[HarpoJoyce]

We didn't concede an early goal and tried to raise our game in the first half.
Derek Doyle header from a corner, couple of long drives over the bar.

We gained in confidence in the second half and Kinger's shot on the run was too much for Murphy. We scored from the corner.
That penalty for Crowe was the worst decision yet. At least Cobh, Drogs and the Tolka crowd had put some pressure on us and there was contact from the full-back.. There's no defender to blame this time. At least we are in the middle of a record-breaking run. (5 League penos conceded on the trot)

It's nice to get back to some normality of the home side scoring and not losing.

[DmanDmythDledge]

and Gregg is possibly the form goalkeeper in the whole league at the moment.

True, but he is still an accident waiting to happen at set pieces. Half came for a corner in the second half which left him in no man's land and if the Bohs player had connected fully we would have been one down (or 2-1, can't remember). Against a team who are dangerous at set pieces we could meet our cumuppence.

[HarpoJoyce]

.... Against a team who are dangerous at set pieces we could meet our cumuppence.

UCD aren't that bad at set-pices, our last three goals have come from (in reverse order) corner, direct-free kick, peno. I understand Gregg is coming from a long way back regarding form. His back four is changing regularly. It will change again next week.