Frustrated Bohs draw a blank

Dundalk 0 Bohemians 0

Pat Fenlon’s men came into the game on top of the table but couldn’t find a way past the Lilywhites on what was a frustrating night for both sides.

Dundalk enjoyed the better of the first half with both Mark Quigley and Jason Byrne going close but two minutes before the break Mark Rossiter almost gave Bohs the lead with an attempted lob of Peter Cherrie, but the goalkeeper managed to touch it over.

Both sides then had chances to clinch the win in the second half. Cherrie pulled off a stunning save to deny Steven Trainor before Nathan Murphy cleared a Chris Fagan effort off the line just after the hour mark.

The home side could have clinched the win themselves late on with Daniel Kearns forcing a brilliant stop from Barry Murphy before a Johnny Breen header was prevented from going in by his own team-mate Keith Ward.

Dundalk also had strong penalty appeals turned down four minutes from the end after Kearns went down in the box.

DUNDALK: Cherrie; Madden, Hawkins, Guthrie, N Murphy; Kearns, Ward, Maher, Quigley, McDonnell (Breen, 70); Byrne.

BOHEMIANS: Murphy; Heary, Burns, Price, Cahill; Flood, Trainor (Somers, 93), Rossiter, Brennan, Dixon (Joyce, 75); Fagan (Buckley, 85).

Referee: D Hancock (Dublin).