Bohemians' difficult start to the League of Ireland season continued on Friday night, as they were humbled 3-0 by St Pats in Inchicore.
The televised derby saw Pats enter just a point ahead of their northside rivals, with both sides having mustered just two wins from their first five games.
It was Stephen Kenny's Pats side that were in flying form, with a first-half goal from Chris Forrester sending them in 1-0 up at the break.
Much of the second half passed without incident, before a late burst from Pats saw both Mason Melia and Jason McClelland bag late goals in the last 10 minutes to heap the misery on the visitors.
Bohs made the sore journey back across the Liffey sitting a lowly 8th in the League of Ireland table, with just six points from their first six games.
Despite this, Alan Reynolds' side had the better of possession in Richmond Park, a repeat of their home defeat to Drogheda United earlier this month.
They even mustered more shots than Pats on Friday night, though at no stage did they truly threaten to take anything from the game. In truth, it was another performance lacking any sort of energy from Bohs.
Reynolds thus raised a few eyebrows with his post-match interview, in which he argued his side deserved more from Friday night game.
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Alan Reynolds argues Bohs deserved more from Richmond Park
With Friday night's clash between St Pats and Bohemians televised on Virgin Media, there was much post-match discussion on how the visitors had ended up so soundly beaten.
It was not a result that Bohs boss Alan Reynolds saw as fair.
"I don't think we deserved that," Reynolds said.
"Looking at the second half performance, [it was] 1-0, tight. We had a chance, Collie Whelan was unlucky. They go into a back five, I suppose they surrender and know we're dominating the game. They catch us on the counter-attack at the end.
"If you come away here and you dominate possession...obviously, they bring on an extra defender because they're concerned about it. Obviously they have pace to break and score, that's what happened."
One could reasonably argue that the 3-0 scoreline flattered the hosts but there was little to say that Bohemians had been hard done by coming out on the losing side.
Reynolds nonetheless contested that his side were not receiving any "breaks" of late.
I felt it was even first half. They started well, it was even.
But, look, we're not getting any breaks at the minute. We stick together, there's a good group in there who are hurting.
I don't think it was 3-0 tonight. On another night, we go and equalise and see where it goes from there.
First half was even, second half I thought we dominated for half an hour.
It has become a recurring trend for Bohemians this season to dominate posssession while offering little if any attacking threat in the final third.
With Bohs coming off the back of an 8th-place finish in the league last season, finding themselves in that position once more so early in this campaign is a worrying sign for Alan Reynolds' team. They could find themselves even lower in the standings depending on the result of Saturday's clash between Sligo Rovers and Derry City.
Bohs' next assignment is a home clash with Galway United on March 28.
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