FAI Cup: Bohemians blast past College Corinthians at Turner's Cross

Bohs always looked in control against their Munster Senior League opponents

Evan Browne of College Corinthians chases possession. Picture: Larry Cummins

College Corinthians 0 Bohemians 5

Bohemians are safely through to the second round of the FAI Cup following a comfortable five-goal victory against College Corinthians at Turner’s Cross on Sunday afternoon.

The League of Ireland side always looked in control against their Munster Senior League opponents but they were given a helping hand in the third minute with Keith Buckley’s stunning long-range finish coming after goalkeeper Shane Sherlock was caught in possession.

“It kills us,” said Corinthians’ manager Joe Gamble when asked about that goal.

“We wanted to play, we wanted to keep our identity and we like to play out from the back when it’s on.

“I said to them ‘Look, you are going to be under pressure but do you want to just go long and hope not to concede, or do you want to try and play?’ 

“The consensus was that we will try and play but they were just errors that we don’t normally do even in training. We don’t normally give away those silly mistakes, it was uncharacteristic from us.”

Bohs doubled their lead when Aaron Doran tapped home from close range after Sherlock had saved his initial effort and Andrew Neville did well to block Buckley’s rebound in the 27th minute.

The Dalymount Park club made it 3-0 when Keith Ward blasted his penalty into the roof of the net at the beginning of the second half before he teed up Jamie Mullins, who made it four with a superb angled drive into the far top right corner.

“I was very disappointed with the referee as well. The third goal absolutely killed the game, it was never a penalty,” insisted Gamble.

“I don’t know what he saw, I’m not too sure how he didn’t give us a penalty later on for a free-kick before their fourth goal.

“Those margins are huge when you are clinging on and trying to get something from the game when we were on the back foot.

“When you don’t have much possession you need a bit of luck and we need the referee to make the right decisions.

“That’s not even luck, sorry, that’s just poor refereeing so I thought he had a bit of a beast.

"It wasn’t going to change the result in terms of us losing but 5-0 looks an absolute pasting but I don’t think it was a 5-0 game.”

Corinthians battled until the end but Bohs completed the rout in injury time with a cool finish from substitute Dawson Devoy to give them confidence ahead of Thursday night’s Europa Conference League second leg with Luxembourg’s Dudelange, which they lead 1-0, at the Aviva Stadium.

COLLEGE CORINTHIANS: Shane Sherlock, David O’Connor, Andrew Neville (Killian O’Brien 63), Conor Walsh, Cian Murphy (Colin O’Mahony 63), Craig Donnellan, Darragh O’Sullivan Connell (Paul Deasy 73), Evan Galvin (Aidan O’Mahony 73), Sean Brosnan (Corey Galvin ht), Shane Daly Butz, Evan Browne.

BOHEMIANS: Stephen McGuinness, Rory Feely, Keith Ward, Conor Levingston (Dawson Devoy 69), Keith Buckley (Ali Coote ht), James Finnerty, Tyreke Wilson, Jamie Mullins, Aaron Doran, Sean Grehan, Robbie Mahon.

Referee: Ray Matthews.