Bohemians travel west this evening (5pm) to take on Sligo Rovers, with the Gypsies aiming to bring an end to a difficult run of results in recent weeks, writes Gary O’Connor.
Bohemians come into the game following a 1-0 defeat at home to Treaty United, their third consecutive loss in the league. The result leaves Bohs eighth in the table with four points from five games, and searching for a response as they look to regain momentum.
Manager Alan Murphy was candid in his assessment of last weekend’s performance.
“I was really, really disappointed. Two 1-0 losses in the past week, but in terms of performance levels a million miles away from each other, and not what we want. And obviously we spoke with the girls, and it’s not acceptable for not just themselves, but for the club in general. They can’t have such a strong performance one week and then completely fall off a cliff. So, yeah, it wasn’t a good day.”
Despite the recent run of results, Murphy believes the group remains unified and focused on improving their performances.
“Just disappointed. The previous week against Shelbourne was a good week. To be fair, the performance was good. So I think, you know, there’s been games where we haven’t performed well, and then there’s games where we have. So they are a really good group, and they will stick together. I suppose from one sense there are games where we’re going to play well and lose and that’s absolutely fine. For me, it’s all about the performance, and the girls will understand that the performance wasn’t acceptable on Saturday. And they’re looking forward to putting it right this weekend.”
Maintaining belief within the squad will be crucial as Bohemians aim to turn their form around.
“Look, it’s always important to keep belief and to make sure that the dynamic in the group is good. That’s really important, because obviously we want the girls to be performing as best as they can. So having belief and confidence is a huge part of that, and obviously from a coaching group, that’s our role, to facilitate that. So that’s going to be the aim for this weekend.”
Standing in their way are Sligo Rovers who sit eleventh in the table with two points from five games. Despite their position, Murphy expects a challenging encounter, particularly given the familiar faces involved.
Former Bohemians under-19 manager Gavin Hughes now leads Sligo, alongside members of his coaching staff with connections to Bohs, adding extra motivation for the hosts.
“Yeah, familiar faces in Gavin, Ciarán and Tom obviously on the coaching staff as well. So they’ll obviously be up for it, and that’ll be a game that they’ll be marking on the calendar, you would imagine having left the club. It’s probably one of the ones you always look straight for. So we know it’s going to be really difficult. The pitch isn’t great up there, by all accounts. You look at the games in both the women’s league and the men’s league over the last couple of weeks, the pitch hasn’t been great. So it’s a tough place to go to. It’s obviously our first sort of travel for an away game this season as well. So a really tough game, but on the flip side, we also know that if we perform well, we’re more than capable of picking up three points. So as I said, it’s just trying to rally the girls this week, to build the confidence back up and put a performance in on Saturday.”
For Bohemians, the focus this weekend is clear, a strong reaction built on improved intensity and consistency across the full 90 minutes.
“Intensity for 90 minutes. I think that’s really important for us this week. The intensity on Saturday wasn’t anywhere near the standard that we would expect. Again compared to the game against Shels the week before the intensity was really high. We need to get back to those intensity levels to facilitate a good showing.”
Team News
Fiona Donnelly (knee), Aoibhe Brennan (ankle) and Eimear Lafferty (ankle) are unavailable for selection.