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Three losses in a row for Dundalk as Bohs leave Oriel Park with a win

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Georgie Kelly of Bohemians, right, celebrates with team-mates after scoring the winning goal against Dundalk. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile Expand

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Georgie Kelly of Bohemians, right, celebrates with team-mates after scoring the winning goal against Dundalk. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Georgie Kelly of Bohemians, right, celebrates with team-mates after scoring the winning goal against Dundalk. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Georgie Kelly of Bohemians, right, celebrates with team-mates after scoring the winning goal against Dundalk. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Daniel McDonnell Twitter Email

There’s something quite appropriate about the fact that the latest off-field casualty at Dundalk appears to be the scoreboard.

But if any resourceful locals had managed to burrow their way into this closed-doors match with ten minutes remaining, they wouldn’t have needed the electronic reminder to let them know the score.

Desperation hung in the air as Dundalk’s coaching staff fired darts at the board in an attempt to avoid a third successive defeat.

The failure to do so will pour even more scrutiny on the running of affairs at the border club, with the dominant power of the last decade looking a shadow of their old selves in every way.

Bohemians are still taking time to click into the gear, and they may have rode their luck with a late penalty shout, but there’s no doubt that victory here went to the more stable operation.

There was a chaotic aspect to this game that is in keeping with the vibe around Dundalk at the moment where it’s hard to know what to expect from one week to the next.

Goalkeeper Alessio Abibi was dropped by Filippo Giovagnoli after an error strewn introduction to life in Ireland, but Giovagnoli himself was relocated to the stand for whatever reason.

Another surprising selection was the inclusion of Korean winger Han Jeongwoo, the player whose signing is apparently supposed to help the club’s Asian brand, as the number ten in support of Patrick Hoban.

Granted, it looked like a smart move early when his pace drew a foul on the edge of the Bohs box and Andy Boyle’s header from the resultant dead ball struck the ball. But it became apparent as the game progressed that it was another square peg in a round hole.

If there has been a focus on Dundalk’s decision making off the park, the players have made some howlers on it too and the lead-up to Bohs’ opener was self inflicted with a poor touch from Raivis Jurkovskis exposed by pressing from Ross Tierney, with a wild Daniel Cleary challenge on the Bohs youngster presenting Rob Harvey with a simple decision to award a spot kick.

Georgie Kelly duly converted against his old club. Dundalk were on the chase already and it contributed to entertaining fare with their system closer to a 4-2-4 at times and the two recognised central midfielders, Sam Stanton and Chris Shields, were so advanced on occasion that it was leaving oceans of space.

So while the natives did spurn opportunities to level things up before the interval after periods of pressure, Bohs could just as easily have doubled their lead with more efficiency on the break. Liam Burt was inches away from doing so before the interval.

Unsurprisingly enough, Han was withdrawn at the interval with pre-match injury doubt Patrick McEleney summoned with a view to adding composure to central areas.

The pattern from the restart wasn’t dissimilar and Stanton squandered a glorious chance to level it up with a close-range header that James Talbot did well to claw away.

But Dundalk pressed the panic button around the hour mark, with messages flying back and forth as Giovagnoli left his seat in the stand to play his part in the communication of a treble switch on the hour mark that actually looked to represent a formal switch to a 4-2-4, with strikers Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe and Dave McMillan introduced from the bench in a drastic shuffling of the pack.

Rather than instigating improvement, Dundalk lost their shape even further in the aftermath and Bohs could have killed the game off before white shirts threw the kitchen sink at their guests in a late rally. But they didn’t have the answers to escape an outcome that will provoke tough questions.

Dundalk: Cherrie, Jurkovskis (McMillan 63), Cleary, Boyle, Dummigan (O’Kane 78); Shields, Stanton (Ogedi-Uzokwe 63); Midtskogen (Leahy 63), Han (McEleney 45), Duffy; Hoban.

Bohemians: Talbot, Lyons, Cornwall, Finnerty, Wilson; Coote (C Kelly 83), Buckley; Burt, Ward (Devoy 83), Tierney; G Kelly.

Referee: Rob Harvey.

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