{"id":580853,"date":"2026-08-02T22:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/580853\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T22:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:10:08","slug":"bohs-fail-to-close-gap-on-rovers-against-spirited-galway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/580853\/","title":{"rendered":"Bohs fail to close gap on Rovers against spirited Galway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bohemians failed to close the gap on leaders Shamrock Rovers having been held at home to a spirited Galway United who had man-of-the-match Hugo Pires da Cunha to thank for earning a point.<\/p>\n<p>Colm Whelan&#8217;s 10th of the season from the spot had Bohs in front before Aaron Bolger\u2019s powerful volley before the half meant both sides were forced to share the spoils.<\/p>\n<p>Having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/0730\/1585751-bohemians-come-out-best-on-penalties-to-advance-in-europe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">overcome Ballkani in the most dramatic of circumstances<\/a> on Thursday night it was back to domestic action with a bang for Alan Reynold\u2019s charges as they played their first league game in 30 days.<\/p>\n<p>With just one win in five over the hosts, Galway looked to rectify that run early on as Bolger got on the end of a neatly worked set-piece but failed to hit the target with his left footed volley.<\/p>\n<p>This early warning sign sparked the home side to life and they really should have been ahead with just 12-minutes on the clock. Operating at wing-back on the left, Dayle Rooney timed his run to perfection to break the offside trap and collect a long ball over the top. But just as he pulled the trigger, the Ballymun native saw his shot smothered brilliantly by Da Cunha.<\/p>\n<p>The home side continued to move the ball beautifully, ramping up the pressure on the visitors. Harry Vaughan\u2019s long range effort whizzed by the post before Douglas James-Taylor&#8217;s strike from point blank range was bravely blocked as the one-way traffic continued.<\/p>\n<p>The Tribesman fell behind from the resulting corner when skipper Jimmy Keohane hauled down Cian Byrne right in front of the referee. In front of the expectant Des Kelly stand, Whelan made no mistake from 12-yards sending the keeper the wrong way to break the deadlock.<\/p>\n<p>At kick-off, John Caulfield&#8217;s troops sat just six points off basement boys Sligo Rovers, albeit with a game in hand over their relegation rivals, and coupled with Waterford&#8217;s earlier win over Shelbourne the Galwegians had been nervously looking over their shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>But to their credit the visitors dug deep and found a stunning equaliser when Bolger smashed home a first time volley, after Keohane\u2019s in-swinging free-kick was only half cleared to the edge of the area.<\/p>\n<p>Desperately looking to restore their lead the home side went close on the stroke of half-time through the busy Vaughan, cutting in sharply from the right and forcing Da Cunha into a full stretch finger-tip save to turn it around the post.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing every point was crucial at this stage, a frustrated Caulfied was booked at the break for remonstrating with the referee, and the tension was palpable going into the second half.<\/p>\n<p>Tempers flared minutes after the restart when David Hurley seemed to kick out following a free-kick concession, sparking a huge coming together of both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Having made most of the running in the second half, the hosts were given a glorious chance to regain their lead. Fresh from his match winning penalty in the shoot-out, substitute Jordan Flores lined up a free-kick just outside the box but failed to hit the target.<\/p>\n<p>Roared on by the vast majority of the 4,019 fans, Bohs went in search of a winner but were frustrated by a resolute rearguard who fought tooth and nail to take a point back out west.<\/p>\n<p>Bohemians: Paul Girard Walters: Cian Byrne (Markuss Strods, 82\u2019), Pat Hickey, Sam Todd; Darragh Power, Dawson Devoy, Niall Morahan (Ross Tierney, 66\u2019), Harry Vaughan; Dayle Rooney (Connor Parsons, 82\u2019); Colm Whelan, Douglas James-Taylor (Jordan Flores, 66\u2019)<\/p>\n<p>Subs not used: Kacper Chorazka, Sadou Diallo, Senan Mullen, Adam McDonnell, Zane Myers<\/p>\n<p>Galway United: Hugo Pires Da Cunha; Jimmy Keohane, Wasiri Williams, Gianfranco Facchineri, Al-Amin Kazeem; Aaron Bolger (Junior Thiam, 87\u2019), David Hurley, Ed McCarthy; Dylan Connolly (Francely Lomboto, 62\u2019), Lee Devitt, Frantz Pierrot (Kris Twardek, 70\u2019)<\/p>\n<p>Subs not used: Vincent Angelini, Killian Brouder, Matthew Wolfe, James Morahan, Mitchell Bates<\/p>\n<p>Referee: Rob Hennessy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bohemians failed to close the gap on leaders Shamrock Rovers having been held at home to a spirited&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-580853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}