Bohemians are through to the FAI Cup quarter finals for a sixth straight season after a 6-0 victory over Munster Senior League side Rockmount at Dalymount Park.
It was a night that will live long in the storied history of one of Ireland's oldest clubs as they had to navigate the fury of Storm Betty.
They still got the job done, with early goals from James Clarke and Jonathon Afolabi giving them a 2-0 lead inside 25 minutes and that set the Gypsies up for a comfortable win against the reigning FAI Intermediate Cup champions.
While there was a gulf in quality, the Munster Senior League side a gave a good account of themselves even with the conditions at Dalymount Park.
This came from the plan that manager Eddie Kenny laid out for his players, which was another blueprint from the coach made famous in Cork by winning Rockmount back-to-back Intermediate Cups and a near clean sweep of domestic honours.
Their experience was used early on, with Alex Hill and goalkeeper David Browne stopping two Bohemians crosses that dropped onto the penalty spot.
Then Grant tried threading a pass through to Afolabi, and Kennth Hoey lunged in to break this up.
The resistance was broken through some neat passing that freed up Clarke, and he side footed in the opening goal. Afolabi got into a similar position five minutes later and made no mistake from right in front of the posts.
Bohemians didn’t slow down during the time that was left to play in the first half and they created a number of chances, with the pick of the bunch being a shot from Adam McDonnell that grazed the crossbar.
With seconds left before the break, Clarke got into space on the edge of the area and curled the ball in to make it 3-0.
Bohemians came back out and a shot from distance stung the palms of the Rockmount goalkeeper. That was followed by Declan McDaid, who replaced Afolabi at half-time, taking the ball down inside the area and firing in from close range.
Kris Twardek, another player that came on in the second half for Bohemians, pounced on a mistake inside the area and got the fifth goal with one of his first touches.
There was simply no let up to the intensity that the home side played with. They kept going, despite the worsening conditions and finished with a flurry as McDonnell swung a free-kick into the opposite corner in the 87th minute.
The 6-0 win puts Bohemians into the hat for the next round, while Rockmount return home before the start of the 2023-24 Munster Senior League Premier Division season.
Bohemians: James Talbot; Bartlomiej Kukulowicz, Patrick Kirk, Krystian Nowak (Louie Holzman 57), Jonathon Afolabi (Declan McDaid 45), Oluwaseun Akintunde (Kris Twardek 57), Daniel Grant (James O’Sullivan 57), Kacper Radkowski, James McManus, James Clarke (Ali Coote 45), Adam McDonnell.
Rockmount: David Browne; James O’Connell (Bradley Walsh 60), Kenneth Hoey, Cian Murphy, Jack O’Sullivan, Alex Hill (Patrik Vascak 75), Daniel Akinrinbola (Daniel Smith 84), Danny Aherne, Jake Courtney (Dean O’Connell 59), Nathan Broderick, Ian Mylod.
Referee: David Dunne
