On Friday, Bohemians put in an impressively gritty display to earn the derby spoils at St Patrick's Athletic but unfortunately that has been overshadowed by the throwing of flares onto the pitch early in the second half of the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division match.
Bohs player Cian Byrne required medical attention after being struck by a pyrotechnic with manager Declan Devine later stating that the defender had sustained "a burnt arm", while the club also received reports from their own fans being struck by flares that were being thrown towards the pitch.
The Dublin club have strongly condemned what happened on Friday, promising "indefinite bans" to supporters found to have thrown flares on the pitch and in a subsequent statement on Monday, they confirmed that, "an Independent Disciplinary Committee of the FAI has imposed a ban on Bohemian FC spectators from attending their next away fixture" which will be at Drogheda United next Monday, 4 March.
Former Republic of Ireland and St Patrick's Athletic winger Keith Treacy was on co-commentary duty for LOI TV at Richmond Park on the night and saw first-hand how events unfolded.
Speaking on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Treacy urged suppporters to channel protests in an appropriate manner and refrain from throwing flares that delay play, potentially endanger players on the pitch and their fellow fans around them.
"This happened in the FAI Cup final as well, flares being thrown onto the pitch, disrupting the play. I understand the frustration towards the League of Ireland, towards the FAI," he said.
"I totally understand that. I've been around the League of Ireland long enough to know there is a huge undercurrent that are just not happy with how it's going.
"I get that. I'm on that side of the fence but throwing flares onto the pitch, throwing flares at players, disrupting games, breaking it up, that's not what we want to see.
"Nobody wants that. We need to come together as a fanbase, as Irish people. We need to be more conducive about how we go about this because throwing flares onto the pitch, hitting players, disrupting and burning the grass, it's not going to get us what we want. It's not going to get us where we need to go.
"It's just going to get us this tag of 'The Irish league is mental, they're throwing flares left, right and centre.'"
Treacy added that it was very fortunate that Byrne was not more badly injured after being struck in the arm, emphasising the recklessness of the supporters who engaged in that conduct.
"If that's a yard higher, it could hit him on the face and we're talking serious injury there, game abandoned. Nobody wants to see this sort of stuff," he said.
"Again, I understand the frustration but you can't just go around doing silly things, stupid things to disrupt the game.
"It was killing momentum, it was killing the game as a spectacle as well. I understand the frustration but I don't want to see any more of that.
"I think when it hit Cian Byrne, everybody's heart went in their mouth and thought, 'Oh God, no, this is not what we need'.
"It came from a Bohs section (of the crowd) but I wouldn't tar all Bohs fans with that. The Pat's fans, they weren't throwing them on the pitch but there were flares all over the stadium in fairness.
"As League of Ireland fans, it's not the way forward and it's not the way we want people seeing our game."
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