Alan Reynolds says Bohemians are taking on a calibre of opposition that his group of players has never faced before but they will do so with a determination to upset the odds.
Bohs come into the UEFA Conference League third round qualifier against FC Midtjylland on the back of enjoyable few weeks navigating past St Joseph’s in the first round, Ballkani in the second, with supporters travelling in substantial numbers to both Gibraltar and Kosovo as well as lifting the roof of Dalymount Park in the final European games to be held there before the stadium is redeveloped.
But tomorthe quality of opposition moves up several gears, while Bohs get to grips with the uncharted territory of occupying the home dressing room at Tallaght Stadium.
While Bohs fans had a long wait to see their club play on the continent, competing in European competition is an annual event for Midtjylland, and last season they went as far as the last 16 of the Europa League. En route, they lost just one of the eight league phase games – by a single goal to Roma – and claimed victories against the likes of Celtic, Nottingham Forest, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Sturm Graz.
Speaking ahead of his side training in Tallaght this evening, Reynolds said: “The past month has been a very special time for everyone involved with the club – players, staff and supporters. As I said after the penalty shootout in Kosovo last week, I have been involved in football for a very long time but these past few weeks have been the highlight of my career, so I want to thank everyone who has got behind our players and helped drive us through the past two rounds.”
There were bumps along the road to getting this far. Having brought a 2-1 lead over to Kosovo last week, Reynolds’ men had to do it the hard way away to Ballkani. Losing 3-1 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate with two minutes to go of normal time, Patrick Hickey swooped to level the tie and bring it to extra time, before Bohs won out in the subsequent penalty shootout.
Reynolds said: “We knew they would throw the kitchen sink at us and they did. There’s no doubt that there were aspects of our performance across the 120 minutes that I wasn’t happy with but we more than made up for it in the manner in which we clawed our way back to level the tie through Pat, and the conviction our lads showed to go on to win it on penalties.
“I have to give a special mention to the lads who stood up and took the penalties too – Colm Whelan, Dawson Devoy, Cian Byrne, Dayle Rooney and Jordan Flores. Penalty shootouts, when there is so much on the line, are some of the most intense and high pressure situations for any footballer, so as well as being delighted for our fans and our group, I was personally delighted for each of the five players who stood up and got us over the line.
“The scenes in the away section of the 250 or so fans who spent their hard-earned money to get over to Kosovo was just magic and the kind of nights we are all in football for. It meant everything to the players and staff that we were able to send all of the supporters home who travelled home happy.
“Later in the night, the videos from fans meeting up together in pubs across Phibsborough, Cabra and beyond all started filtering through to us. It was great to see those celebrations, the group was buzzing to know we had so many people back home rooting for us and that we were able to give them a night to remember as well.
“You can go through tough times in football as individuals and as clubs, so it’s important that everyone involved took a minute to savour all of that. But then you have to move on to the next one, because we have an almighty challenge ahead of us tomorrow.”
Bohs come into tomorrow’s game on the back of a frustrating 1-1 draw against Galway on Sunday evening, a match they dominated in every metric bar finding a winner.
Reynolds said: “The risk after an exhausting game in Europe for any club is that you might struggle to maintain your tempo and performance levels. But that’s not what happened on Sunday. I couldn’t criticise our players afterwards. We were excellent for the vast majority of the game, played some brilliant stuff at times and created plenty of chances.
“We were frustrated that we couldn’t get the winner that I believe our performance deserved, but that was one we have to take on the chin, look at where we can improve but be honest and say we didn’t do a whole lot wrong either.”
Midtjylland lost out 3-0 on aggregate to Besiktas in their Europa League qualifier last week to instead enter the UEFA Conference League qualifiers.
While the eventual scoreline suggests it was comfortable victory for the Turks, the tie was tightly poised in Herning last week – the difference being Besiktas’ 1-0 lead from the first leg in Istanbul – until Midtjylland were reduced to 10 men in the 53rd minute.
Reynolds added: “We are facing a calibre of opposition our group of players has never faced before. It’s a team full of internationals and proper athletes, who have had an exceptional record in Europe over the past number of years, with some serious scalps along the way.
“This will be a step up like no other for us. We have our own game-plan and have looked at ways we believe we can hurt them but they are a very, very good team. We need to be disciplined and we need to be clever. We have a real belief in ourselves and what we are trying to achieve. We will challenge our players to be brave and to show courage, but nobody at the club can be under any illusions about the quality of our opponents.
“We will need the support we have had over the past number of weeks to continue and to be even louder still. Bohs fans have always made themselves heard in Tallaght Stadium. I know we’ve 5,500 tickets sold now and hopefully we can add a bit more to that over the next 24 hours or so because we will need each and every one of our supporters right behind us, singing their hearts out.”
Team news
Bohemians have a full squad to choose from.
Tickets for the West Stand and North Stand remain on sale, and are available from tickets.bohemians.ie.
For supporters unable to make it to Tallaght, we are pleased to confirm the streaming details for tomorrow’s game:
- Domestic viewers can order the stream for €10 directly from play.bohemians.ie.
- International viewers can order the stream for €15 from Solid Sport.
Richie McCormack will be joined on commentary by former Bohemians player Ian Morris.