Bohemians<\/a> manager Alan Reynolds.<\/p>\nThe other saw a coming-together of players that fizzled out when the Rovers squad realised the significance of their achievement. Six points clear with three games remaining, they spun away from the melee, towards their fans in the south stand. <\/p>\n
In any title race, especially amid the blur of Rovers\u2019 dominance throughout the 2020s, only the special moments are remembered.<\/p>\n
Watts\u2019s goal should stand the test of time. <\/p>\n
With a record attendance of 10,208, for a competitive match at Tallaght Stadium, supporters were gripped by a Dublin derby that the evergreen Watts settled by ghosting behind the cover to stretch and score off a long throw by Will Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n
Twelve months ago, it was Watts, the quietly efficient midfielder, who whipped in a free-kick against Galway United to capture a fifth Premier Division title in six seasons. Their remaining matches are against Galway, Sligo Rovers and Dundalk – and they may need two wins and a draw from those fixtures, depending on results elsewhere, most particularly in the four matches that nearest rivals St Pat\u2019s have left.<\/p>\n
This was Bohemians\u2019 chance to catch Rovers cold. <\/p>\n
It initially seemed like John McGovern\u2019s 14th goal of the season was going to settle a tense contest. McGovern struck for the fifth time in three games. That was not enough to see off Bohs. <\/p>\n
Watts took care of that in a stunning reply to Ross Tierney\u2019s scrappy equaliser five minutes earlier. <\/p>\n
Bradley\u2019s men rediscovered their groove when it really mattered. Pico Lopes, clearly over his World Cup hangover, looked sharp and mean at the heart of the defence. Matt Healy stood out in a midfield that included the recently capped Bohs captain Dawson Devoy. Even the European meltdown of late August is consigned to the Bradley notebook of lessons learned. <\/p>\n
McGovern\u2019s headed finish on the Bohemians goal line, 10 minutes before half-time, was created by Graham Burke\u2019s rapid movement, a pirouette to freeze seven red shirts and the neatest cross imaginable from the Ireland international\u2019s left toe. <\/p>\n
For McGovern it was rapid redemption as moments earlier he had sidefooted a glorious chance wide of Paul Walters\u2019s goal. The movement of the former Down Gaelic footballer and Burke, as they cut Bohs open to reward Daniel Cleary for unburdening Colm Whelan of possession in the Rovers box, deserved a goal. <\/p>\n
Rovers may be hoping referee Rob Hennessy forgets to mention what happened between the 25th and 27th minute in his match report; the Dublin Fire Brigade had to extinguish multiple flames down the south end following an explosion of fireworks. As green smoke blanketed the pitch, hiding players and officials, Hennessy blew for a hydration break.<\/p>\n
The sheets of rain cleared up with the smoke as the derby eventually restarted.<\/p>\n
It was the ultimate spectacle for the league; a crowd made up of a hefty number of fans of both clubs was transfixed by the football, with St Patrick\u2019s Athletic manager Stephen Kenny the most interested spectator.<\/p>\n
The fading hope of the title race being revived depends on St Pat\u2019s beating Shelbourne at Richmond Park on Friday and Rovers, somehow, losing away to Galway and at home to the almost relegated Sligo.<\/p>\n
This was the chance for Reynolds, Devoy and Bohs to strike a blow against Bradley, Lopes and Rovers. But it was Burke\u2019s class that shone through; the man of the match took the ball at the end and shielded it when his team needed him the most. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge game,\u201d said Burke, \u201cthe ones you want to play in. It\u2019s a huge three points for us, Bohs played well. Three more games to go, three huge games, we need to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shamrock Rovers: McGinty; Cleary, Lopes, Grace; Sobowale, Byrne (J O\u2019Sullivan 65), Grace, Watts (Razi 85), Fitzgerald (C O\u2019Sullivan 80); Burke (Greene 80); McGovern (Afolbai 80).<\/p>\n
Bohemians: Walters; Power, Hickey, Todd, Flores; Devoy (Parsons 63), McDonnell (Burke 15, Diallo 81); Parsons (Vaughan 81), Tierney, Rooney (James-Taylor 60); Whelan (Strods 60).<\/p>\n
Referee: Rob Hennessy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Premier Division: Shamrock Rovers 2 (McGovern 35, Watts 76) Bohemians 1 (Tierney 71) Dylan Watts\u2019s 76th-minute winner ensured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3407,61,60,2539,11113,112],"class_list":["post-653199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bohemians","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-shamrock-rovers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653199","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=653199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}