Alan Reynolds believes last week’s performance against Cork City is one of the best Bohemians have produced during his time in charge but says they need to build on it further for what is a massive two months ahead.
Bohs travel to the Showgrounds on Saturday in second place to renew acquaintances with Sligo Rovers, the team that knocked them out of the cup a fortnight ago.
Reynolds admits that defeat stung, and says it must serve as a lesson and reminder for his players for the remainder of the season that they cannot allow their performances to drop if they want to maintain their league position and qualify for Europe.
He said: “We let ourselves down the last time we played Sligo. We can’t afford to do that again.
“Being knocked out of the cup was a big blow to the players and to the supporters. It was important that we drew a line under it last week. That can be hard for both players and supporters to do because frustration after results like that can linger.
“But you have to look forward, and you saw that from us against Cork. We’ve given ourselves a platform in the league this season and we can’t afford to look back and I think that we reflected in our performance last week.
“We dusted ourselves down and got on with it. I felt that we showed a real sense of purpose. We came out of the traps determined and that sense of purpose is what is required between now and the end of the season because we have a massive couple of months ahead of us.
“We started the game on the front foot and we asserted ourselves, and the supporters responded to that.
“That’s what was lacking in the cup game against Sligo and it needs to be a lesson and a reminder to ourselves about how we need to approach games: We’ll get nothing if we don’t work for it.
“As I said after the game, I thought our first-half performance against Cork was one of the best I’ve seen since I’ve been here.
“The only criticism I had at half-time was that we should have been more than one goal ahead for all the chances we created.
“But we were creating them – we were testing their keeper, we were getting shots off and we kept on asking questions of their defenders.
“In the second half, Cork came at us more but we kept our heads, defended well and we got our rewards – another fantastic goal from Dougie and the icing on the cake from Dawson in injury-time. The scoreline didn’t flatter us, it could have been the scoreline at half-time.”
But Reynolds expects a far greater challenge from John Russell’s Sligo, whose tails are up in recent weeks after overcoming a difficult start to the season and adding reinforcements in July.
Reynolds added: “The challenge now is to keep that going. Sligo have picked up some big wins since strengthening in the transfer window.
“They are a much-improved team to where they were in the first half of the season and having beaten us already in the cup, they will be looking to add to that. They’re back looking up the table instead of what’s behind them. They’re coming into this game with confidence, but so are we.
“We have to be ready for the threats they pose, but our focus has to be on our own game-plan and asserting ourselves again.”
Team news
Rob Cornwall (knee) and Leigh Kavanagh (ankle) are back in contention but John Mountney (groin) remains out.