With a third of the league season gone, the Gypsies have failed to register a victory at Dalymount Park since beating Bray Wanderers 5-1 in the Leinster Senior Cup in February, while you have to look as far back as September for Bohs’ last home league win (2-0 v Derry City).

“The performances over the last couple of weeks have been very good,” Heary said. “I look at the last two league games as four points dropped, but it’s hard to fault the players’ performances in either of them. We went down to Cork and battered them, in the second half in particular. Against Derry, it was similar – we had all the chances yet they scored a great goal against the run of play to get a point.

“The lads know that if they keep playing the way they are, working as hard as they are and delivering the kind of performance they have in the last two games, their luck will change. The positive is they’re creating more than enough chances to win these games, we just need to be a bit more composed in front of goal.

“Having said that, we are scoring too. We’ve only failed to find the net in two league games. Last year, we were getting turned over by two or three goals at home without scoring ourselves. So while we’re not where we want to be, there are signs that we’re moving in the right direction. We need to keep at it, not let the heads drop and our luck will change.”

Cup competitions are Bohs’ only realistic chance of silverware, but Heary still has one eye on Friday’s SSE Airtricity League visit of UCD to Dalymount Park.

“We want to win every game and every cup,” he said. “But of course you have to look ahead too when you’re selecting your team for a game in this competition. We’ve already lost Dinny Corcoran through suspension for the UCD game, so we can’t afford any more silly bans or risk players carrying a knock. That gives a chance to a couple of others – young lads like Jake Hyland and players on the fringes – tomorrow night to play themselves into contention for Friday too.”

Heary will have to plan without the experience of Aidan Price, who was forced off at half-time against Derry City after he aggravated a thigh injury. He was replaced by 21-year-old debutant Eoin Wearen and the former West Ham youth is likely to keep his place in the side. Anto Murphy, targeting his first appearance of the season after a hamstring injury, is also in line for some game-time.

Heary added: “Eoin was thrown in at the deep end on Friday and while he didn’t have a lot to do, he did everything that was asked of him very well. Anto should feature too. He’s been out for too long to risk him from the start but he should come off the bench at some stage.”

Craig Walsh returns from suspension, while the ban Corcoran received for his red card against Derry City does not kick in until Friday’s league clash against UCD.

Heary’s side gained a point last week from Cork City in Cork, where the league leaders remain undefeated. “It was a very good performance considering the conditions and the crowd against us. We outplayed Cork for the majority of the game, and we created numerous opportunities.”

Bohemians now have three home games in eight days, including next Tuesday’s visit of St Patrick’s Athletic for the second round of the EA Sports Cup and Heary is aiming to have his team turn playing at home into an advantage. “You should enjoy playing at home, but we have to get that first win and then build on it.”

Bohemians’ busy schedule has given the manager an opportunity to test all of his players in senior-team competition. ‘Fringe players’ Lee Whelan, Jake Hyland and Philly McCabe started in last Monday’s Leinster Senior Cup defeat to Shamrock Rovers, while Paddy Collins and Keith Mahony came on as subs. Meanwhile, Jack Memery returned from knee injury to play the 90 minutes.

“We were well in the game until [Daniel Byrne’s] sending-off. Even then, the team kept trying to do what we wanted them to do, getting on the ball and passing well,” said Heary.

“Lads who had been left out previously showed their character by doing their job well. You could see their mental toughness. Anybody can have a bad game, but you can sink or swim after that and I think the lads clearly showed they wanted to swim.”

However, Byrne’s sending-off on Monday has reduced Heary’s selection options for Friday. Byrne is automatically suspended for this match, while Craig Walsh serves a one-match suspension for accumulated yellow cards.

Striker Dinny Corcoran is again available for selection following knee injury, but Anto Murphy’s return from hamstring injury will likely be delayed until Tuesday’s EA Sports Cup fixture. Central defender Aidan Price has a late fitness test for a quad injury incurred in the Cork City game.

A new name in the Bohemian squad is that of central midfielder/defender Eoin Wearen, 21, who was most recently with West Ham. He was previously a “hot property” with St Kevin’s Boys and has played at under-17 and under-19 for Ireland. Wearen has been training for some weeks with Bohemians and is awaiting international clearance to be eligible for selection.

“Rovers will always have a strong team out, so it gives our younger players a taste of what it’s like at this level and shows them the level they should be aspiring to play at week in, week out in a few years’ time.”

Although he was happy to see Bohs’ run of league defeats come to an end, Heary was frustrated not to have come away from Turner’s Cross with all three points against a top-of-the-table Cork City side still unbeaten this season.

“I was very happy with the performance but I’m disappointed not to have won it. Ryan McEvoy and Jason Byrne went close, and Kevin Devaney hit the crossbar. We were the much stronger team and created more than enough chances to win it, particularly in the second half.

“In saying that, we did get out of jail at the end when Cork were denied what looked like a legitimate goal and we were handed a free-kick out, so I won’t complain too much!”

Heary was pleased to have been able to pick the strongest line-up available for the trip to Leeside as recent Monday league fixtures have necessitated much tinkering to his line-ups.

“Being able to play the kind of football we want to play is obviously much easier when we’ve our strongest team out and they’re not knackered. With Dinny Corcoran injured, we obviously would have liked Jason to start against Sligo Rovers on Monday but he wasn’t physically capable of playing having played the full game 2½ days previously against St Pat’s.

“Asking Dave Mulcahy to play two games in such a short space of time after being out for so long was a big ask too. You have to remember that players are part-time too – they have jobs or go to college – so they benefited from having a full week’s training with no game in between going down to Cork. There shouldn’t be the same problem this evening as most of the players who will be playing are players who haven’t been getting regular game-time”

Jack Memery, out for over a month with a knee injury, is expected to feature tonight. Corcoran (knee) has also returned to training, while Heary revealed Anto Murphy (hamstring) is targeting next Tuesday’s EA Sports Cup tie against St Pat’s for his long-awaited first appearance of the season. Aidan Price (quad) will not be risked tonight, but Philip McCabe, who came off with a knock against Sligo on Monday, is available to play.

Heary wants his players to approach the Cork game in a positive frame of mind. “I know we have the players to get a result. They just have to believe it. I think they do, but we just have to get the mental approach fine-tuned.”

At this stage in the season Heary expected to be better-placed in the league. “I’m disappointed that we haven’t got more points on the board. I can live with a team outplaying you, as Pats did against us. But against Limerick and Sligo we defended really well, we created the better chances, and then we go and concede a goal off a corner. We were well in those games, getting on top, and then we killed ourselves on a set-piece.

“The players have to take responsibility for tuning-out for a second and that’s something that we’re working on with them. The disappointing part is that we haven’t reacted as we should to someone making a mistake.”

Bohemians have to plan without striker Dinny Corcoran (knee ligament injury), but Jason Byrne, sat out 80 mimnutes of Monday’s match against Sligo following a strenuous 90 minutes against St Patrick’s Athletic three days earlier, is likely to start in the Cork game. Corcoran may make it back for next weeks’ home league game against Derry City.

Steven Beattie, who has proven his versatility with appearances on the wing, up-front and, most recently, shuffled to right-back, may be chosen in that position again, with Derek Pender switching to left back, where Bohemians have too often proven vulnerable.

Jack Memery (knee) has returned to light training but is not yet fit for possible selection, while Anto Murphy (hamstring) may be back training next week.

Heary expects to make several changes for Monday’s Leinster Senior Cup match in Tallaght against Shamrock Rovers. Jake Hyland and Lee Whelan, promoted from the under-19s, can expect to play and goal-keeper Dean Delany will return to start.

Another two-game weekend at the start of May will further stretch the Bohemian squad but Heary insists he would prefer to be playing in three competitions in parallel than to be already eliminated from the knock-out tournaments. “You want to be playing every game possible,” he said.

“We work hard all week on trying to eradicate individual mistakes from our game, so it’s frustrating when it happens again. They’re not small mistakes. They’re big ones if they’re costing us goals and results.”

The fixture list hasn’t helped Bohs’ bid to get more points on the board but Heary has challenged his players to step up and prove their worth.

He said: “You could say we’re unfortunate in that we’re playing three of the best sides in the league – Pat’s, Sligo and Cork – in a row but that’s what the players should want. They should be wanting to go out and play against the best in the league – to push themselves, to better themselves and test themselves against the very best.

“We all knew Sligo were going to come good eventually and they’ve shown that in their last few games where they’ve scored goals for fun against St Pat’s and UCD and got a good draw away to Cork in between. We know we’re up against one of the best teams around.”

Heary admitted the return of club captain Dave Mulcahy, who played the full 90 minutes on Friday in what was his first appearance since the opening day of the league season after knee and calf injuries, was a “massive plus” but he is set to tinker with his line-up again as there are “a lot of tired bodies”.

“We did very well to get 90 minutes out of Jason too,” he added. “We would have liked to have taken him off after around 70 minutes but with Dinny Corcoran out, Jay was the best person to get us back into the game so we had to leave him on. But there were a lot of tired bodies on Friday and you don’t want to be flogging players, so we will change things around in certain areas.”

Heary’s options are limited by the continued absence of Corcoran, who will have a scan on his knee injury on Tuesday, as well as Anto Murphy (hamstring) and Jack Memery (knee). Goalkeeper Dean Delany returns to the squad after serving his additional one-match ban for the red card he received against Bray Wanderers earlier this month.