Shamrock Rovers 0 Bohemians 0

The Dublin derby between Rovers and Bohs last night will not be remembered for memorable football - but it will be remembered for the irritability of both sets of players.

The tone was set as early as the 11th minute when Marc Kenny was booked for a high challenge on Stephen Caffrey. Minutes later two more players found their way in the referee's notebook - Dave Morrison for a foul on Jason Colwell and the latter for retaliating.

One team was always going to pay the ultimate price by losing a player and the inevitable happened in the 32nd minute when Marc Kenny got his marching orders for swinging his arm at Caffrey.

The two managers then squared up as things veered towards chaos but gladly the players and coaching staff saw some sort of sense and cooled down a bit.

The game itself was a dour affair with the ball up in the air most of the time. Chances were at a premium throughout the 90 minutes. Sean Francis and Billy Woods did go close for Rovers early in the game and Glenn Crowe should have really opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when he was expertly put in by Mark Dempsey.

On the evidence of this game it will be a long, hard season for the Dublin teams in the Premier Division. With so many derbies to play, the door could be left open for the likes of Cork City to come through and sneak the title.

Shamrock Rovers: O'Dowd, Smith, Palmer, Deans, Dunne, Vaudequin, Tracey, Colwell, Kenny, Woods, Francis

Subs: Robinson for Vaudequin 45, Cronin for Dunne 82, Brazil for Francis 88

Sent Off: Kenny 32

Bohemians: Russell, O'Connor, Bowman, Hill, Webb, Dempsey, Caffrey, Hunt, Morrison, Molloy, Crowe

Subs: Williamson for Morrison 21, O'Neill for Crowe 80

Referee: H Byrne (Dublin)