Sligo Rovers 0 Bohemians 2
Bohemians manager Keith Long has praised his team for winning Saturday's 'scrap' in Sligo.
Two second half strikes from Danny Grant earned the Gypsies a valuable three points that takes them above the Bit O' Red.
And the Bohs boss said his side had to battle for the win.
“It was a scrappy first half with lots of stoppages, lots of free-kicks, lots of headers and clearances because they loaded our box from throw-ins and free-kicks.
“We gave away silly free-kicks, and it was difficult for the referee to manage the game because it was so scrappy and it was quite competitive in there.
“Second half I thought we defended really well and everything Sligo threw at us, we stood up to. We won our headers and our tackles and we were first to most things in the second half and we have hit them on the break twice with two well-executed goals by Danny Grant.
“So it was a great victory for us and I thought we were value for it in the second half if I’m honest.
“We’ve played lots of good free-flowing football recently and got no reward for it. Tonight was a scrappy performance, but we dug in, showed resolve, showed that we are able to scrap a little as well, so from that perspective, I am really pleased.”
Young striker Grant showed impressive composure to curl the opener past Mitchell Beeney midway through the second half, and he wrapped it up with an equally confident finish in the closing stages.
Rovers boss Gerard Lyttle felt his side failed to turn up in the second half.
He said: “We played into Bohemians’ hands in the second half. I thought we were very good in the first half and it looked like there was only going to be one winner.
“Second half, we were poor. We started playing long balls and it suited them. They created two chances and scored both of them.
“Did they deserve to win? I wouldn’t say so. But did we do enough to win? Probably not as well, so a fairer reflection would have been a draw.”
SLIGO: Beeney, Boylan, Mahon, McClean, Waters (Morrison 85), Pinceli, Cawley (Wixted 70), McCabe (Roy 80), Keaney, Cretaro, Moorhouse.
BOHEMIANS: Supple, Buckley, Casey, Morris, Leahy (Byrne 23), Devaney, Brennan, Watts, Stokes, Ward (Kavanagh 82), Grant (Gannon 89).
Referee: B Connolly.
