Alan Reynolds says there is nobody in the Bohemians dressing room feeling sorry for themselves and believes his side has the fight, determination and quality to push back up the table.
Ninth-placed Bohs host tenth-placed Sligo Rovers at Dalymount Park on Friday night with both sides frustrated with their start to the season so far and looking to get back to winning ways.
Reynolds’ side come into the game on the back of last week’s 2-0 defeat at home to Galway United, who moved level on points with St Patrick’s Athletic at the top of the table.
Reynolds said: “Everyone is hurting, everyone is frustrated but I can assure you that nobody in our dressing room is feeling sorry for themselves.
“There is great quality in our squad and what we also have is a strong collective determination from everyone to put things right.
“The Galway game was deeply frustrating for us. We dominated periods of the game but again we didn’t make that count.
“They had three chances in the whole game and scored from two of them. At 1-0 down, we were well in the game and on top with our fans right behind us because they knew that we were playing well and pushing for an equaliser but the second goal gave us a mountain to climb against a side as strong defensively as Galway.
“Their second goal was a wonderful strike, but our defenders should have dealt with it beforehand.
“If you were to take that game in isolation the players mightn’t be hurting as much as the overall performance was good but they are hurting because we know our results haven’t been good enough.
“The players and all of us on the management team obviously hear the frustrations but we don’t need to hear them because we have the same frustrations ourselves.
“But we believe in ourselves. The players are frustrated with themselves, frustrated with the mistakes that have cost us this season but everything I have seen from them in training tells me that we are all in this together, and that we have a strong and united group who are determined to put things right.”
John Russell’s Bit O’Red come to Dalymount Park on a frustrating run themselves, but Reynolds added: “They are a capable side. They’ve been unlucky in the past few weeks.
“They’ve had four red cards this season and in three of those games they’ve lost by a single goal. They have good players, they put it right up to Shels last week and bar a freak result on the opening night of the season, they have given everyone they have played a real game so we know the qualities they have and the threats they pose.”
Team news
Bohemians are without (Rob Cornwall), Connor Parsons (hamstring) and Kian Best (ankle), while Jordan Flores (Achilles) is a doubt. John Mountney, a late withdrawal from last week’s game through illness, is available for selection once more.