Bohemians return to SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division action on Saturday evening (6pm) when they travel to Ferrycarrig Park to face Wexford.
After a difficult start to the campaign, Bohs head into the fixture with renewed confidence following an impressive run of form either side of the mid-season break. With league action paused since the mid season break Alan Murphy’s side continued their momentum since by securing a place in the All-Island Cup semi-final.
Last weekend’s 1-0 victory away to Treaty United saw Bohs progress to the last four thanks to another decisive contribution from Savannah Kane. The striker scored the only goal of the game at the Markets Field, continuing her excellent recent form with a third goal in her last five appearances.
Just as encouraging for Murphy has been his side’s defensive record. Bohemians have now kept four consecutive clean sheets and have gone 386 minutes without conceding a goal. That run has helped transform the mood around the squad after a challenging opening few months of the season.
Reflecting on the victory over Treaty, Murphy was pleased with both the result and the performance.
“Yeah, I thought it was a professional performance, I thought we played quite well. As I keep on saying it’s about the performance we know that if we play well the results will come. I thought maybe we could have won more comfortably to be honest with you with the chances that we had. But really happy overall, another clean sheet as well, which is really important for the girls in terms of our structure and just building confidence game by game.”
Treaty created problems of their own during the opening stages and were awarded a first-half penalty, but Bohs ultimately found a way to come through a tight knockout tie.
Murphy believes that winning those close contests is another sign of the progress his side has made in recent weeks.
“It was really pleasing. They dug in in the first half, particularly, I thought it was probably even enough first half where they had chances and obviously missed the penalty. But I still thought once we got past the first 10 or 15 minutes, I thought how we executed the game plan was really good. And like that, it’s always pleasing to come out on the right side of those one-nil games because I think previously in the season we played okay in games and have been beaten one-nil a couple of times. So yeah, it’s really important that we start to turn those little fine margins into wins for ourselves and it’s all about getting momentum through the group and just keep on trying to build on what we’re doing.”
The recent defensive solidity has been one of the most noticeable improvements in Bohs’ game. Clean sheets against Shamrock Rovers, Waterford, Waterford again in the All-Island Cup, and Treaty have provided a platform for the team to climb out of a difficult spell.
Murphy was keen to highlight the collective effort behind that run rather than focusing solely on the back line.
“It’s been fantastic and it’s not just the defenders, but everybody buying into what we’re doing. So from our centre-forward it’s been a lot of buy in in terms of how we press, when we press, that’s probably the most pleasing part over the last four weeks has been that it doesn’t look like we’re going to concede too many chances in games. And that always gives us a chance because we know we have quality at the far end of the pitch to score and we have quality to create goal-scoring opportunities. So we’re very pleased with that aspect.”
At the other end of the pitch, Kane has become an increasingly important figure. The forward’s winning goal against Treaty continued a strong run of form, but Murphy believes her contribution extends far beyond goals alone.
“She’s been excellent. We have massive belief in Sav. We always have and I think you can see she has confidence at the minute and she’s a really important player for us. She works so hard off the ball as well, like we spoke about a minute ago, in terms of that defensive effort, she’s been key to how that defensive effort works and obviously on the flip side of it, just in terms of her cleverness and movement off the ball when we’re in possession as well. You can obviously see she can finish as well. She’s been a massive part of the group and it’s good that we also have other girls in the background. We have Hannah O’Brien, Alannah McEvoy and Katie Malone, they’re all busting their gut and they’re all busting to get into the team. So it’s a difficult situation for me at the minute in terms of trying to get an abundance of riches, I suppose, in that part of the pitch. Sav’s doing really well, but obviously we have girls there that are backing her up as well.”
Saturday’s opponents will provide another stern examination. Wexford currently sit seventh in the table on ten points and are unbeaten in their last five matches. The side have undergone significant change this season, with Dave Connell taking charge and overseeing the development of a squad that looks markedly different from previous years.
Although Bohs sit ninth on six points, recent performances suggest they are capable of closing that gap, and Murphy believes his side can travel to Wexford with confidence.
“Yeah I think it will be an interesting game. Obviously Dave going in, it’s a change of manager, things are changing in terms of how they are playing. They have a new look squad as well. They’ve had quality players that have been there for a number of years that have moved on, so they’re a new group and they’re a good side. You never get anything easy in Wexford at the best of times. We all know how good a manager Dave is coming from the international setup, so it’ll be tough. But the confidence that we have at the minute going through the whole lot of the group is high and we want to win it and it’s important although we’ve not conceded and we’ve stabilised, we haven’t won a league game in quite some time, so I think that’s the next goal on the agenda for us.”
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