JAMES CLARKE scored a last-gasp equaliser as Bohemians drew a game they should really have won but might have lost.
Trailing to Owen Elding’s sublime first-half strike, the Gypsies huffed and puffed for the whole second half, not finally finding a way past an inspired Sam Sargeant between the Sligo post until the fifth minute of added time
Dayle Rooney floated over Bohs’ tenth corner of the game with Clarke arriving to head to the net, adding to his goal in the Dublin Derby win over Shamrock Rovers last Monday.
Remarkably, Bohs might then have won it with the last kick of the game in the 100th minute when skipper Dawson Devoy shaved the crossbar from the edge of the area.
Bohemians slip to third place on goal difference behind Derry City.
Sligo are four points ahead of Cork City at the bottom of the table.
Full of confidence following Monday’s win over bitter rivals Rovers, Bohs began brightly, Niall Morahan bringing an easy save from Sargeant having worked a one-two on the right with Rooney inside two minutes.
With two wins from their last three games Sligo were not short on belief either and came to play.
Will Fitzgerald worked Kacper Chorazka with a dangerous cross scarcely a minute later.
Chorazka had a little more to do on seven minutes when getting down smartly to hold the ball at the second attempt from Had Hakiki’s header, with Elding having provided the clever delivery.
In an open game, the Gypsies’ Ross Tierney might have done better than head tamely wide after Clarke and Rooney had carved the opening down the right.
But Sligo quickly responded through Hakiki, who held off the challenge of Devoy to cut in from the left and bring another save from Chorazka.
If they were half-chances, the first real opening arrived on 15 minutes.
Collie Whelan’s delightful flick found the run of Tierney, who outmuscled Ollie Denham but blazed high and wide with only Sargeant to beat.
And the openings kept coming.
Devoy found Whelan in space, but he too drilled wide when he should have hit the target.
Jordan Flores got forward from centre-back to volley wide from distance while Adam McDonnell brought a fine save from Sargeant as the game somehow remained scoreless.
That changed on 28 minutes when the home crowd were stunned into silent admiration as Sligo took the lead against the run of play with a cracking goal.
The ball was worked out from the back by Reece Hutchinson and Daire Patton, on his full debut.
Elding picked it up on the halfway line.
The 19-year-old skipped confidently forward unchallenged before the talented teen put the laces of his left boot through the ball to find the roof of Chorazka’s net from some 30 yards.
The brilliant strike mirrored one Elding scored against Shelbourne last month as he registered his eighth goal of the campaign.
GOAL SEARCH
A terrific save from Sargeant ten minutes later ensured Sligo took their lead into the break.
The keeper parried a drive from John Mountney after Rooney’s deep cross found him at the far post.
Clearly unhappy with what he saw in the first half, Bohemians boss Alan Reynolds replaced Mountney and McDonnell with Liam Smith and Keith Buckley ahead of the resumption.
The hosts had more energy as they chased the game, with Devoy and Rooney trying their luck from distance early on.
Sargeant’s safe hands would deny Devoy while Rooney put a free-kick over the top before Bohs thought they had levelled on 81 minutes.
Rhys Brennan chipped a ball in from the left which was met by fellow sub Smith, whose downward header came back off a post.
Sargeant saved from Brennan before home frustration was finally eased with Clarke’s late leveller.
SUN STAR MAN
Sam Sargeant (Sligo Rovers)
BOHEMIANS: Chorazka 7; Morahan 6 (Strods 85, 6), Cornwall 7 (Kavanagh 90+1, 6), Flores 7, Mountney 6 (Smith h-t, 6); Devoy 6; Rooney 7, McDonnell 6 (Buckley h-t, 6), Clarke 7, Tierney 6; Whelan 6 (Brennan 60, 6).
SLIGO ROVERS: Sargeant 8; McDonagh 7, Denham 6 (Wolfe 61, 6), Reynolds 7 (Mallon 86, 6), Hutchison 7; Patton 7 (Van Hattum 86, 6), Doyle-Hayes 7; Elding 8, Hakiki 7, Fitzgerald 7; Waweru 6 (Lomboto 68, 6).
REFEREE: D Toland (Athlone) 6.
