'How we started the second half was unacceptable' - Bohs left to rue Cup final errors
Bohemians manager Declan Devine reacts after the final. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
Before the biggest-ever crowd to watch an FAI Cup final, there were Saints and unfortunately for Bohemians, sinners.
Their inability to hold a lead was symptomatic of a season they sped to the top of the table in, only to falter and drift out to sixth by the finish.
European qualification was the objective set for Declan Devine in his first season at Dalymount, one they’ve failed to achieve, and he didn’t reach for the excuses route in explaining how the smoke that regularly engulfed the pitch mirrored their season.
Bohs were involved in the 1945 Blue Riband that set an attendance 41,238 which lasted as a record until yesterday’s turnout bettered it by 2,657 but it was the same deflating outcome in this modern version.
Devine bemoaned their inability to use Jonathan Afolabi’s ninth-minute breakthrough from the penalty spot as a springboard for success, furious his warnings about Mark Doyle’s propensity for connecting with crosses wasn’t heeded for the equaliser.
His ire only deepened when they were caught out by another Jake Mulraney inswinging free-kick for the own-goal Krystian Nowak that gave the Saints a 2-1 initiative two minutes after the restart, With the Gypsies throwing bodies forward looking to force extra-time, like 11 of the previous 16 deciders, substitute Thomas Lonergan profited to dart clear and add a third with three minutes left.
“To say we're hugely disappointed is an understatement,” said the Derryman, who had regaled the Dalymount crowd by suggesting from the microphone Shelbourne were merely borrowing their European spot for nine days.
“We prepared well all week, I thought we came in with a real opportunity, but that opportunity goes. We didn't work hard enough in the first half, especially when we took the lead.
“Joe Redmond and David Norman just dictated the game from the back; played it at their tempo after we equalised.
“The set pieces, it's just not acceptable, you can't win anything if you don't defend set pieces properly and, let's be honest about it, that's been our Achilles heel all season, especially over recent months, it's something we have not dealt with well, and in League of Ireland football it's a huge aspect of winning games and it's not something we have done well, especially today.
“How we started the second half was unacceptable. There’s a lot that has to be learned, in terms of bringing success back to the club because you have to defend better than we did today but the buck stops with me.”
After waiting 53 years to end their FAI Cup hoodoo in 2013, this was the third claimed in nine years by St Pat’s.
It was a victory hardly flagged in the first quarter of the match as they were dominated.
The top scorer with a Premier Division club, Afolabi, gave his former St Joseph’s Boys colleague Redmond all sorts of grief with his runs off the shoulder and he was quickest to the loose ball on nine minutes, drawing a clip from Anto Breslin that Referee Paul McLaughlin correctly deemed a penalty.
Despite the veteran Dean Lyness playing mind games with Afolabi by urging him to choose the right corner, the goalkeeper lost the battle by diving the wrong way as the Charlton Athletic target collected his 20th goal of the year.
Afolabi and then his teammate James Clarke each lofted shots over as the momentum was one way but from, Mulraney’s 23rd-minute free-kick, Doyle outmuscled his marker to glance a header beyond James Talbot.
It was evenly contested thereafter but the Saints showed more purpose, with Chris Forrester clearing the crossbar with a drive on the run approaching the break.
Kian Leavy’s similar run early in the second half was halted by James McManus, allowing Mulraney to whip a ball from the right. As Redmond swept in at the back post to finish, Novak got there first, only to divert the ball into the bottom corner.
Although Afolabi blazed over, under pressure from the tireless Forrester, and captain Jordan Flores struck the post with one of his Roberto Carlos-style swerving free-kicks, Bohs lacked the guile to come again.
Instead, dallying around at the back cost them a third with three minutes left. A hospital pass by John O’Sullivan into Flores was anticipated by Lonergan who nipped in, brushed aside the makeshift left-back and surged clear on goal.
From 12 months ago scoring the goal that preserved UCD’s Premier Division status, his strike here had the significance of sealing Cup joy for his new club.
The fourth teen on the pitch was calmness personified by finding the corner with a curler that Talbot got a hand on but couldn’t keep out, “We win together and lose together and there's no one person to blame today,” added Devine, when the anger subsided momentarily.
“Ultimately, we should look back on it with a lot of regret. All three goals were absolutely preventable. We must make sure it doesn't happen again moving forward.”
: J Talbot; B Kukulowicz, K Nowak, C Byrne, J Flores; J McManus (P Kirk 52), A McDonnell (J O’Sullivan 85); D Connolly, J Clarke, D Grant (A Coote 69); J Afolabi.
D Lyness; S Curtis, J Redmond, D Norman, A Breslin; C Forrester (A Murphy 69), J Lennon; J Mulraney (J McClelland 69), K Leavy (A Nolan 76), M Doyle (M Melia 57); C Carty (T Lonergan 75).
P McLaughlin (Monaghan)
: 43,881.
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