Bohemians welcome Shelbourne to Dalymount Park this afternoon (3pm) with a place in the semi-finals of the Club Orange Women’s FAI Cup up for grabs, writes Gary O’Connor.
The Gypsies come into the quarter-final looking to respond following a disappointing 3-2 defeat to Sligo Rovers in their last league outing. Bohs found themselves 3-0 down at half-time after a difficult opening 45 minutes, but produced a much-improved second-half performance to give themselves a chance of rescuing something from the game.
Alannah McEvoy reduced the deficit from the penalty spot before Aoife Fennell produced a stunning effort in stoppage time to make it 3-2. Despite a late push, however, Bohs were unable to find an equaliser and ultimately left themselves with too much to do following the first-half deficit.
For manager Alan Murphy, the major frustration was once again the manner in which his side conceded their goals, rather than Sligo creating opportunities through sustained attacking play.
“Yeah, disappointed with the result again. Another game where we have more possession than the opposition. Started the game quite bright and give away a goal. We’re giving away goals to the opposition, they’re not having to create chances against us, we’re actually giving the goals away, so that’s really disappointing, it’s been a feature of the season. The girls are aware it’s not acceptable and it can’t keep on continuing. We saw in the second half when we have a go and when we tighten things up the back and when we get the ball up to the final third, we look a threat. But at that stage, the game is 3-0 and it’s probably gone.”
Bohs’ first-half struggles were ultimately decisive, with three avoidable goals leaving them facing an almost impossible task after the interval. Murphy was particularly frustrated by the nature of each goal and the mistakes that led to them.
“As I said, the opposition aren’t carving us open. It’s not intricate play. We really are just handing away goals to the opposition we give away a corner for the first goal, that doesn’t need to be given away. The second goal is a defensive error with a slip and compounded by giving away a penalty and the third goal is a poor kickout. So the biggest disappointment is we’re giving goals away. As I said if somebody is creating really good chances or they’re scoring wonder goals against us I can accept that but for us to be giving away goals, it’s not good enough to be doing that at this level.”
There were, however, encouraging signs in the second half as Bohemians wrestled control of the game and began to create more opportunities in advanced areas. Changes made at the break also injected additional energy into the side, with the Gypsies looking far more threatening after the interval.
Murphy was pleased with the response, although acknowledged once again that the damage had already been done.
“Yeah, I think the girls that came in definitely gave us energy. We obviously changed shape as well. I think we found ourselves in higher areas, we found ourselves in wider areas. We didn’t give the ball up as much. So really pleased from that aspect. But again, it’s against a back drop of giving away three goals in the first half, which we can’t do all the time.”
The FAI Cup now provides Bohs with the opportunity to put that disappointment to one side and focus on a competition in which they have already produced some excellent performances this season. Standing between them and a place in the last four, however, is a Shelbourne side that Bohs know extremely well.
Saturday’s opponents have already faced Bohemians three times this season, and the Gypsies are yet to come out on top. Shelbourne claimed a narrow 1-0 victory in the league before edging a 2-1 win in the All-Island Cup group stage. The most recent meeting came in the All-Island Cup semi-final, where Shelbourne ultimately ran out 4-0 winners.
Despite those three defeats, two of the contests were decided by fine margins, with the league meeting settled by a late goal and the group-stage encounter remaining competitive for long periods. Bohs will therefore be hoping to use their familiarity with Shelbourne to their advantage and produce a different outcome this time around.
Murphy knows the quality of the opposition but believes his team can take confidence from previous encounters and their improved second-half display against Sligo.
“Same as always, they are one of the top teams in the country. We’ve had three tough games against them, two that were quite close. I thought that potentially we could have come out on the right side of the first couple of games and obviously the third game probably goes against us in the second half. So really tough game. But from our point of view, we need to bring the momentum from the second half last weekend, we need to bring the energy, and we have to stop conceding goals. We’ve proven that we’ve been a decent cup team this year. So we’re going into the game with a game plan to win and hopefully with some confidence after the second half on Saturday.”
Bohemians’ performances in the cup competitions have been one of the brighter aspects of the campaign. The Gypsies reached the semi-finals of the All-Island Cup earlier in the season and have now reached the last eight of the FAI Cup, giving them another opportunity to make a deep run in knockout football.
With no second chance on Saturday, Murphy believes the foundations of the performance will be particularly important. Keeping the game competitive into the later stages could be crucial against a Shelbourne side who have shown their ability to punish mistakes.
“We definitely need to be tighter at the back. We can’t give up as many chances and as many goals as we have been doing. It needs to be the foundation of every game, and that’s key for us this weekend. We’ve had two tight games against them and obviously as I said one that got away from us in the second half. When the games are tight, we’ve got to be comfortable in those games. We need to make sure we’re still in the game with an hour gone to give us a chance of winning and that will be the key going in on Saturday. We need a solid foundation that we can build on in the second half.”
Team News
Bohemians have a full squad to choose from.