Alan Reynolds wants to build on the grit and determination his side showed last week when they make the short trip to Drumcondra to take on champions Shelbourne.
Bohs come into this game after getting back to winning ways with a 4-2 victory over Sligo Rovers last week.
Those three points moved Reynolds’ men up to seventh in the league table and, in an indication of how closely-fought games across the division have been so far this season, sees them five points from bottom but six points off top.
But it could have been very different last week as, despite having the perfect start which saw them 2-0 up after five minutes through goals from Colm Whelan and Ross Tierney, they were already pegged back to 2-2 before the half-hour mark.
Cool heads and determination prevailed in the second half, however, as Tierney found himself on the scoresheet once more in the 75th minute and Dawson Devoy added the icing on the cake in injury-time with the goal of the game.
Reynolds said: “It was great to get back to winning ways and having been pegged back but we know well that we shouldn’t have found ourselves in that position in the first place, so that was disappointing and as a group we have spoken about that and are working hard to eradicate mistakes that have been costing us.
“But the pleasing part about it was our attacking play and the quality of our goals. There have been previous games where we played a lot better but didn’t take our chances so to have Colly, Rossi and Dawson all on the scoresheet was a big positive for us and they will take great confidence from that as well.
“And it’s not just them either, when our attacking players tick it’s because they have players like James McManus and Niall Morahan behind them, who were both outstanding.
“But listen nobody is getting carried away but it was an important win for us. We needed to get back to winning ways and a win at Dalymount was a long time coming.
“The lads have really wanted to give our fans something to shout about and I think you could see how much it meant to the players to be able to celebrate a win in Dalymount again.
“I’ve spoken before about us wanting to win back the trust of our supporters, so hopefully that is the beginning of that and in fairness, all credit to our supporters last week, even when we went back to 2-2, the atmosphere was brilliant and the lads were being urged on from the stands.
“It’s something we want to build on now. We’ll go to Tolka Park with big numbers behind us in the Ballybough End and we want to start the game as we mean to go on and have them right behind us.”
Last week they faced the team bottom of the table, this week they face the defending champions, so Bohs know that they cannot afford a repeat of the mistakes at the back that allowed Sligo back into the game.
Bohs will welcome back the attacking threat of Connor Parsons for this game; the former Waterford winger has been forced to sit out the previous two games with a hamstring injury.
But Reynolds will be forced to chop and change his backline once more with three of last week’s backline – Jordan Flores, Seán Grehan and Alex Lacey – likely to miss out, joining Kian Best on the sidelines.
Reynolds said: “Shelbourne are a very good side. They’re disciplined and organised, and are champions for a reason. But we have shown in patches how we have players who can hurt teams and the challenge for us now is to bring that into a Dublin derby against a side as well established as Shels are.
“Having Connor Parsons back is a great boost to the squad. He gives us an extra dimension in attack and has the pace and skill to run at defenders and bring others into attacking positions, so we are delighted to have him back.
“We have been unlucky with injuries at the back this season. We’ve had to change our defence more often than we would have liked, and that will be the same this week with the injuries picked up against Sligo Rovers.
“But the good news is that we have Rob Cornwall back in contention – a really experienced defender to have back in for such a big game.”
Team news
Connor Parsons (hamstring) and Rob Cornwall (knee) and come back into contention.
Jordan Flores (Achilles), Seán Grehan (ankle) and Alex Lacey (hamstring) are ruled out, while Lys Mousset (Achilles) is a doubt.