Heary insists his side is not one to play for a draw and a replay – not least because Bohemians face a very busy league programme with two postponed matches to be rescheduled.

“We’re part-time, with a lot of lads who work night-times or early mornings. It’s going to be Friday and Monday games for a while and we’ve a lot of tough games coming up.”

The postponement of Monday’s league match brought no gain to Bohemians, said Heary.

“We were looking forward to the game. The players were ready to go, particularly after the result on Friday [2-1 against Drogheda United]. They were well set up for the game.

“I’m sure we would have given them a good game and possibly come away with the points.”

However, the extra days without a match have given defender Derek Pender more time to recover from a bout of flu, and striker Dinny Corcoran more time to recover from a knock received last Friday.

Steven Beattie is available for the Cork cup-tie, although his sending-off against Drogheda United rules him out of the next two league games. He will return to right-back in the absence of Anto Murphy (ankle injury), while Pender moves to left back. Roberto Lopes is suspended (yellow cards) and Jack Memery is still tied up with college exams.

Heary says his squad is training like a group of players who sense they can get something tangible from the season, whether it’s qualification for the Setanta Cup or an FAI Cup winner’s medal, or even both.

“The cup is important for us. We got beaten in the semi-final of another competition. If we can finish on a cup final this year, it will be a tremendous achievement.

“But we don’t want to be just a cup team. If we win our two league games in hand, we will shoot up the table.

“If we do get to the cup final, it could be a passage to Europe and it’s a medal for the players. That has to be an incentive for the players, that they have something in the hand at the end of the season to show for their hard work.”

Pic by Eddie Lennon – eddielennonsportingimages.com