Forget the stuff about a game of two halves. This was a year of starkly contrasting fortunes for Derry City and how Felix Healy must have been glad to hear the whistle blown on its second period at Dalymount Park yesterday.

Having won the league and reached the cup final before the summer, Derry have looked a more sorry outfit of late and this defeat, which left them with just six points from their last six outings, finally prompted Felix Healy to concede that early 1998 will primarily be about building for next season.

If they can make it to Lansdowne Road again, so much the better, but, as far as the Derry boss is concerned now there is no longer any hope of the club retaining their championship title.

Given that, and the fact that Turlough O'Connor was talking up his side's chances of finishing in the top four, Healy's assessment of this game as "a poor match between two sides with little to play for" seems fair enough. However, we had become accustomed to the players from these two clubs relishing the opportunity to put one over on their rivals.

At the end the sight of Peter Hanrahan, among others from the Dublin team, punching the air in delight, seemed to confirm the view that the importance to the hosts of the victory surpassed the winning of three points by a mid-table side, but then Derry are not quite themselves just now.

Healy still believes that the club's best side is also the best in the country but this was a long way short of either. Like thousands of Christmas gifts, they lacked their power source - Paul Hegarty, Gavin Dykes and the departed Peter Hutton - which, combined with the absence of Liam Coyle, Tom Mohan and Robbie Brunton, prompted Healy to field a makeshift team that included a number of reserves, youngsters and the hastily signed midfielder Craig Taggart from Scotland.

With an eye to the future, what they produced must have been comforting for, having been outplayed for long stretches of the first period, they remained level until the break and were actually starting to look like the better team by the time Brendan Markey scored the game's only goal in the 55th minute.

Turlough O'Connor said afterwards that he had been concerned not to be two in front at the break, an advantage which Derek McGrath alone might have provided by then had his first touch not let him down a couple of time, but the determination shown to squeeze out the victory clearly pleased the Bohemians manager, whose side appears to be steadily putting their worst troubles behind them.

McGrath, the first half errors aside, was the game's most creative player and along with Brian Mooney and Derek Swan, the latter employed on the right side of midfield, he helped to give the locals a clear edge across the centre where City had just one regular.

Through the opening stages that superiority resulted in almost uninterrupted possession around the City area but, with referee John Feighery clearly determined not to award the penalty for handball which the hosts - on three separate occasions - felt they deserved, Graham Lawlor's powerfully struck shot from the edge of the area was as close as they came to getting their noses in front.

Outclassed in the centre of the pitch, Derry looked to the flanks from where James Keddy was a constant source of danger to the home side. His fiercely driven shot, at the end of a sweeping 70th minute break, forced Dave Henderson into the best save of the game after which Swan bundled the ball behind to safety.

Where Liam Coyle and an inform Beckett would have troubled Maurice O'Driscoll and Eoin Mullen, Sean Hargan and this year's model from the Beckett range plainly could not and on those rare occasions when one or other of the pair slipped their marker within shooting range, the resulting shot was generally well wide of the mark.

For Markey, on the other hand, it was a case of third time lucky. McGrath started the move which led to the goal, feeding Mooney, who in turn crossed to the far post where Markey was lurking but the youngster, currently on loan from Millwall, had his shot blocked down twice from six yards before he spotted a gap between Tony O'Dowd and his defenders and managed to rifle the ball home.

Bohemians: Henderson; Broughan, O'Driscoll, Mullen, Byrne; Swan, McGrath, Hanrahan, Mooney; Markey, Lawlor.

Derry City: O'Dowd; R Coyle, Curran, Kelly, Gallagher; Semple, Taggart, Doherty, Keddy; Beckett, Hargan.

Referee: J Feighery (Dublin).