Alan Reynolds has demanded that his Bohemians players be braver in front of goal when they make the short trip to Tolka Park to take on champions Shelbourne.
Reynolds was frustrated that, despite long spells of possession against Drogheda United last week, they came away empty-handed after Kevin Doherty’s men claimed their third 1-0 win of the season against Bohs.
And Reynolds says his players cannot afford to make the same mistakes against in-form Shels, buoyed by their 2-1 Europa League qualifier win away to Croatian champions Rijeka on Wednesday and unbeaten in their last seven domestic games.
He said: “We were obviously really frustrated with ourselves last week. We had long spells of possession but we simply didn’t test Drogheda’s goalkeeper anywhere near enough. We didn’t ask enough questions of their defenders. We made it too comfortable for them and then we were punished with one of the few chances they created, which was a real suckerpunch.
“We have shown this season that we have great attacking players in our squad who can cause damage but against teams who are so well organised we have to be braver.
“That is something we have spoken about in training this week and have been working hard to rectify because, for all the possession and spells of good play we had last week, we left three points behind us, which was deeply frustrating.
“Teams like Drogheda and Shelbourne don’t cough up many chances. There were times last week where we took the wrong options or we gave the ball too easily and there were others where we were in attacking positions and just needed to assert ourselves, be that bit braver in front of goal and make the goalkeeper work.
“So we need to turn that frustration and hurt around now into a determination to do better and to be braver because we know we have the ability to be better than we were last week.”
It’s another sold-out Dublin derby this week with 1,000 Bohs fans making the short trip to Drumcondra.
Reynolds said: “It’s going to be a big occasion and we need everyone to rise to it. Shels have been back playing like champions again over the past month or so and they are one of the form teams in the league, so this is a massive challenge for us.
“They won’t make things easy for us so our performance levels right across the team need to be at their very best.
“After the result they got in Europe during the week and the run they have been on in the league over the past few weeks, their confidence is going to be high and the atmosphere should be electric.
“But our fans always make their voices heard in games like this and we’ll have a thousand of them behind the goal roaring us on so we need to feed off that.
“I know there has been a big effort to get supporters to attend the women’s game in Dalymount before our game too and that the kick-off time has been brought forward to allow supporters get to both games. They’re on a brilliant run and are on a high after reaching a cup final, so hopefully fans will get behind both teams.
“It’s rare both teams are playing on the same day and even rarer that there’s an opportunity for fans to get to a women’s game before going to ours so fans should avail of that, get down to Dalymount early and just make sure that they are still in good voice by the time they get down to Tolka to get behind our lads!
“We’ll need that support. We have worked hard to get where we are this season but we’ve seen with the results over the past few weeks that we are going to have to work even harder than before to stay there so we need our fans right behind us. It’s a big challenge ahead for us but it’s one we are all relishing.”
Team news
Douglas James-Taylor (hamstring) returned to training this week and is back in contention, while Cian Byrne (knee) is a doubt.
Alex Lacey will continue his rehab from a hamstring injury by playing for the Bohs U20s in their game against St Pat’s tomorrow, while Declan Osagie last week joined UCD on loan for the remainder of the season to gain first-team experience.