Despite a strong opening 45 minutes from the students, in which they held the visitors to nil, a goal right at the start of the second half buckled the UCD defence who were never able to recover.

Bohemians were poor in the opening 45 minutes, whilst UCD produced a solid defensive shift. But it was only a matter of time before the dam broke.

Off the back of their 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Derry City last time out, UCD were determined to bounce back tonight, and they showed great character and fight in the first 45 minutes of this game. Playing without Captain and centre-back Jack Keaney, you wouldn’t have noticed, Adam Wells and Eanna Clancy looking relatively solid in the centre of defence.

It took the visitors Bohemians a while to properly settle into the game, as the students established a high press early on in this game. After a few minutes, Bohs quickly were able to play through the press as they looked to cause the hosts some problems going forwards. Their first real chance of the game came in the 13^th minute as Bohs’ left winger Danny Grant picked up the ball on the half way line, and drove at right back Evan Osam.

This was a fascinating match-up throughout tonight’s game, this time the Bohs man was able to drive past his man to tee up a shot from the edge of the 25-yard box. Cutting in on his right foot, Grant’s shot was miscued and went sailing over the bar, much to the relief of Osam and the rest of the UCD defence, who were carved open.

Arguably the chance of the half, in the 20^th minute Jonathan Afolabi was played in one-on-one with UCD Goalkeeper Lorcan Healy by a wonderful ball over the top from James Clarke. With Afolabi beating the UCD offside trap, Afolabi set himself for a shot at goal. Healy was in two minds whether to come off his line or not, and was caught in no mans land.

Much to the surprise of everyone, Afolabi’s shot was blasted over the bar, which is a real surprise given his form this season. Healy was relieved, as it was not his finest bit of goalkeeping, but the scores remained level.

Seven minutes later, Healy made a crucial save from a close-range header from Afolabi again, this time the cross coming in from the right boot of Bartlomiej Kukulowicz. With Afolabi no more than 6 yards away from goal, Healy’s save was purely reflex, as he tipped the ball over the bar. The UCD defenders swarmed to their goalkeeper to congratulate him on the save.

UCD grew into the game as the half progressed, and looked solid in defence. They pressed high up the pitch and were clearly motivated to put in a big performance tonight after their game against Derry.

Healy was called into action again right at the end of the first half, and he came up with the goods yet again as he denied Ali Coote’s effort from close range. Driving through the UCD defence and into the penalty area, a Coote goal looked inevitable, but Healy was down to his left quickly to deny the midfielder his goal. He struggled to gather the ball at the first time of asking, but quickly dived on the ball to bring an end to proceedings in the first half.

The stubborn UCD defence would only last for so long, and three minutes into the second half Bohemians would finally break the deadlock in this game. After a bright start from UCD, they were caught out of possession high up the pitch, and Bohs countered clinically.

Afolabi had the ball at his feet just inside the UCD penalty area, laying it off to Clarke on the edge of the box. Clarke made light work of a scrambling UCD defence, dribbling through on goal before calmly slotting the ball into the bottom right hand corner. Healy was unable to prevent the goal, as he was wrong-footed and blind-sighted by his defence.

Bohs would push on for a second goal, and looked all but certain to just two minutes later. Dylan Connolly found himself with acres of space on the right wing, and played a dangerous ball towards the face of goal. Ali Coote flicked the ball to Afolabi at the bck post with his heel, and Afolabi scuffed the shot. It dribbled wide of the back post, and he couldn’t believe he missed.

After a long period of sustained pressure, Bohemians doubled their lead on the 65^th minute mark. After an excellent run by Dylan Connolly down the right wing, he drove to the byline before whipping in a dangerous cross into the UCD penalty area.

The cross was met by the head of Danny Grant at the back post, as he climbed highest of everyone to flash the ball across the face of goal. His header nestled nicely into the bottom right corner, leaving Healy with no chance of saving the effort.

Despite an encouraging first half performance from the students, they were starting to feel the pressure.

A brilliant late goal from UCD’s Matthew Alonge would reduce the deficit to just one goal, but it would prove to be only a consolation score. Nevertheless, it was a brilliant strike from Alonge, whose shot from distance nestled perfectly into the bottom left corner.

UCD would push for a late equaliser as the game opened up hugely in the final few minutes, but almost got caught out on a few occasions as Bohs looked to capitalise on an abundance of space in the UCD defence.

UCD were unable to equalise, and Bohemians leave Belfield with all three points, though it was a rather tense final few minutes. Bohemians were a much-improved side in the second half, shaking off some fatigue after their huge game on the weekend. They could have scored many more goals tonight, were it not for some excellent saves from Lorcan Healy, as well as some bad luck for Jonathan Afolabi.