Alan Reynolds says Bohemians will face one of the biggest tests of their mettle when they travel to Richmond Park to take on St Pat’s in the quarter-finals of the Club Orange Men’s FAI Cup.
There has been little between the sides in recent seasons and this year has been no different so far.
The clubs are level on 50 points in the league after 29 games, played out a 0-0 draw in the season opener at the Aviva Stadium and in their other two meetings this term, the home team won out by two goals.
But Bohs have failed to win any of their last four games in Richmond Park, their last win in Inchicore was in February 2024. With the prize of an FAI Cup semi-final on offer, Reynolds says his side are relishing the challenge of revering that trend.
He said: “It’s a massive Dublin Derby away from home with a lot at stake for both sides. We’ll be up against it but these are the big games that test your mettle and the ones you relish. We’re really looking forward to it.
“It should be a good spectacle. Both teams try to play football the right way, but the most important thing for us is that we find a way of winning.
“There has been very little between us but we’ve gone to Richmond Park this year and last year and we have found it difficult, and have been on the wrong end of comfortable wins for St Pat’s. So we know how tough it will be.
“The flipside of that is that we are going there with real confidence and real determination. We’ve had an enjoyable couple of months with the games in Europe and since we were knocked out by Midtjylland, we’ve seen a great determination in the team to push on.
“We need that same determination in spades when we go to Richmond because St Pat’s have players who can really hurt you if you switch off, which we have done before against them. We need everyone on it, and we need our fans who make the trip over right behind us as well. None of us can take our foot off the pedal from start to finish.”
As Reynolds mentioned, Bohs have enjoyed a positive run of form since their European exit, winning three games in a row and scoring 12 goals in the process – a 4-0 win in the cup over Longford Town followed by 5-3 goalfest against Derry City and a 3-0 victory over Sligo Rovers.
Reynolds: “There’s determination in the group and those wins have been pleasing. They were all different kinds of games but we turned it on in each of them when we needed to and got the results we wanted. The Longford and Sligo wins were more comfortable for us but only because we worked for it, and the Derry game in between we showed real grit to turn our performance around in the second half.
“But as I keep repeating, nobody can get carried away with a couple of good wins or performances. We showed we have our weaknesses when we switch, we saw that when we went down to Waterford and lost 3-0 last month.
“We constantly work on getting better and we have been over the past number of weeks, but we are facing a really good team managed by Stephen Kenny so our levels need to be even higher again.
“Our last three games were a home too, with Dalymount absolutely bouncing, so the 450 fans we have in Inchicore will have to challenge themselves to recreate that too! This game will be 100 miles an hour and we have to do everything we can to make sure we come out on the right side of it.”
Team news
Dayle Rooney (hamstring) is available for selection once more but Sam Todd (quad) remains out.