Bohemians are delighted to confirm that striker Andre Wright has signed for the club until the end of the season, subject to international clearance.

The Englishman, 22, joins after a successful trial period during which he also impressed in the 1-1 friendly against Chelsea 11 days ago.

A product of the West Brom academy, Wright has most recently played for Gloucester City.

Manager Keith Long has worked hard to strengthen his attacking options since first-choice frontman Dinny Corcoran suffered a long-term ankle injury at the end of May.

His options up front had already been curtailed after Cristian Magerusan’s season was ended before it began when he suffered a torn cruciate injury in pre-season training in January.

Long said: “Obviously since Dinny’s been out, our options have been curtailed and it was clear that we needed to strengthen up front.

“Andre has had a number of training sessions with us over the past two weeks and has impressed as he did in the 65 minutes or so he played against Chelsea.

“Ryan Swan needs support up front, it’s his first season playing Premier Division football and he can’t do it all on his own.

“We felt we needed to look further afield than just our own league to bring someone in who could make a difference.

“Andre was someone recommended to us by Alan Caffrey through his contacts in the UK and we did our own research on him.

“It’s obviously a new league to him and a new environment. In terms of where he is fitness-wise, he’s towards the latter part of pre-season so he’s fit, not 100% match fit, but ready to feature in games.

“He’s excited to be here and looking forward to getting started.

“He’s had a few clubs since leaving West Brom so he wants a bit of stability in his career now and is determined to knuckled down and score goals for us between now and the end of the season and we believe he can.”

In recent weeks in particular, Bohs have struggled for goals, firing blanks in games against Derry City, Cork City and UCD.

But the Gypsies ended that barren run in style with a 3-0 derby win against St Patrick’s Athletic, with Swan helping himself to a brace in a man-of-the-match performance.

Long said: “Ryan was fantastic. He works really hard and that’s the best we’ve seen from him in a Bohs jersey yet.

“He had a tough year last season being ruled out for the year but he works extremely hard for himself and the team, so we were delighted with his performance yesterday.”

Bohs can also confirm that with Wright coming in, fellow striker Sam Byrne has been released from his contract.

Long added: “I want to thank Sam for his commitment to the club during his time with us. He needs to be playing games and I wish him all the best both personally and professionally for the future.”

BOHEMIANS v ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC
SSE Airtricity League
Sunday July 21, Dalymount Park, 3pm

Match sponsor: Bonobo Bar

Keith Long has told Bohemians to go out and show their real character in this afternoon’s Dublin derby against St Patrick’s Athletic at Dalymount Park.

Bohs are still licking their wounds after a frustrating few days.

An uncharacteristic performance saw them beaten 1-0 away to UCD on Monday, a defeat that was compounded by regrettable post-match scenes between both sets of players and the result being overturned with Collie O’Neill’s side instead being awarded a 3-0 walkover after it emerged the Gypsies fielded a suspended player, Danny Mandroiu.

Mandroiu will instead serve that suspension today alongside skipper Derek Pender, who received a ban for his part in the unnecessary post-match scuffles, which were initiated by UCD goalkeeper Conor Kearns goading and deliberately inciting Bohs fans.

Long was visibly and understandably angry by those scenes and conceded: “Monday wasn’t good enough. We need to show our character now – on and off the pitch. We need to improve our discipline, it has to be better than that. What went on after the game wasn’t good enough, that wasn’t us.

“It was a bad week for all of us in the club. UCD deserved to win. We struggled to break them down. They were well organised and got men behind the ball but our performance was lacking.

“It was to me our worst performance in 12 months, going back to when we lost to Sligo at home last season. We didn’t play to our strengths but perhaps there were some warning signs in previous weeks since the break.

“Maybe this was coming. We needed at last-minute goal to beat Waterford a few weeks ago and our performances in the draws against Derry City and Cork City weren’t where we want them to be.”

But Long is never one to dwell on the past. He had his side knuckle down in training the following day and determined to make amends against St Pat’s who by all accounts impressed in their 2-1 defeat away Norrkoping on Thursday night.

While Long will be without key men in the suspended duo of Pender and Mandroiu, there was some good news with Danny Grant, Rob Cornwall and Aaron Barry all taking part in full training this week and all now available for selection.

Long said: “We have to take our medicine and get on with what we do. We have refocused since Tuesday on St Pat’s, who are a good side and have good players.

“We are missing Derek and Danny but have options elsewhere coming back with the three lads training this week, which is a positive. They’ve had a frustrating time coming back, with a few set-backs along the way, so it’s great we finally have them back and in contention.”

TEAM NEWS

Derek Pender and Danny Mandroiu are suspended.

Aaron Barry (hamstring), Rob Cornwall (Achilles) and Danny Grant (hamstring) all returned to full training this week.

Whether all three will be risked remains to be seen, but all are likely to return to the matchday squad.

Dinny Corcoran (ankle) and Cristian Magerusan (cruciate) remain out.

Due to circumstances out of the club’s control, tonight’s event can no longer be hosted by the club and no longer take place in Dalymount Park.

The organisers will instead hold an alternative event in Jigsaw, Belvedere Court (off Mountjoy Square).

It’s BYOB and we hope as many supporters as possible can still support their event.

Bohemian FC acknowledges the statement released by the Football Association of Ireland today confirming that the club unintentionally fielded a suspended player, Danny Mandroiu, in Monday’s game against UCD.

The sanction imposed is a 3-0 walkover for UCD and a fine for Bohemians, which the club accepts.

While Bohs losing the game 1-0 on the night reduces the impact of the walkover somewhat, it does not in any way whatsoever reduce the seriousness of the initial error and also means Mandroiu must now serve his one-match ban against St Patrick’s Athletic on Sunday.

The FAI sent the club notification of the suspension as normal but internal IT issues led to restricted access to emails and the notification being missed.

It is clear that better procedures and support for our staff should have been in place and the board of management wish to unreservedly apologise to the first-team backroom team, players and supporters for this failing.

We will endeavour to ensure our procedures are improved and that such a costly oversight is never made again.

Bohemian FC once again invites football fans from all communities for a celebration of the Africa Cup of Nations final this Friday.

For the sixth Africa Cup of Nations final in a row, we will be hosting a night solidarity, friendship, football and music.

This time around we also welcome residents from the Finglas and Clondalkin Direct Provision centres.

Working with MASI (Movement of Asylum Seeker in Ireland) this season, Bohemians have got behind a supporter-led initiative to assist residents from these two centres to attend every home league game this season.

The initiative was piloted by supporters last season and proved so popular that it was decided to extend it to all league games this year.

To that end, ten per cent of Bohs’ profits from the 2019 away jersey has funded match-night buses from the Finglas and Clondalkin centres as our supporters strive to make Dalymount Park an inclusive and welcoming place for all and to highlight the challenges faced by those living in Direct Provision.

But with no Bohs game this Friday, Dalymount’s newest regulars will instead join us for the ACN final.

The first of the six Bohemians Africa Cup of Nations final celebrations was held nine years ago in 2010.

Each of these occasions, also organised by Kevin Brannigan and friends, has been one to remember and we hope our own supporters and wider community will get behind this one again.

Our club’s interest in this year’s tournament piqued with the involvement of former Bohs man Ayman Ben Mohamed.

We remember with pride his first call-up for Tunisia in 2016 for an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier during which time he was quickly establishing himself as a fans’ favourite at Dalymount Park in his brief spell with the club.

A 2018 Africa Champions League winner with his present club Espérance Tunis, Ben Mohamed’s endeavours for his country helped them all the way to the semi-finals of this year’s ACN tournament.

Alas, his involvement in it will come to an end later today when Tunisia face Nigeria in the third/fourth place play-off.

Attention then turns to Friday’s finale where Senegal face Algeria. Jigsaw open at 7.30pm ahead of the game, which kicks off at 8pm.

Afterwards, top DDR (Dublin Digital Radio) DJs, Heat Werk and Killian Red Monk will be playing tunes late into the night.

We hope you can join us.

After six matches in 96 hours, the Bohs U17s reached the final of the San Marino Cup where they faced Belgica Boys on Saturday.

Six injuries and 32° heat saw Bohs tire in the second half and eventually succumb to a 2-0 defeat.

All the lads can look back and be extremely proud of how they represented the club and country over the five days of competition. Well done all.

Best of luck to Andy Lyons who is flying the tricolour for Bohemains in Armenia and is set to start for Ireland against Norway later this afternoon as they get their European U19 Championships campaign under way.

In total there are three players in Tom Mohan’s squad who have passed through our youth structures including Ali Reghba, who recently transferred to Leicester City, and Brandon Kavanagh, who joined Shamrock Rovers at the start of last season having been released.

Kick-off against Norway today is 3.45pm. They then face France on Thursday and Czech Republic on Sunday. All three games are being broadcast on RTÉ 2.

Our U19s are nine points clear at the top of the Northern Elite Division after a 3-0 win away to Sligo Rovers yesterday.

Craig Sexton’s side were bolstered by the debut of South Africa-born midfielder Katlego Mashigo, a product of St Kevin’s who joins after a spell with Fleetwood Town.

The U19s get the rare opportunity to play at Dalymount Park next Monday (July 22) when they host Shelbourne at 7.30pm.

We hope members and fans can get down to Dalymount to get behind our stars of the future.

The Bohs-SKB U17s are four points clear at the top of the Northern Elite Division after an entertaining 3-3 draw against Sligo Rovers at St Aidan’s.

They also face a derby against Shels next weekend, while the Bohs-SKB U15s and U13s face derbies against Shamrock Rovers.

There is no fixture for the Bohs U17W team next week. They went down 2-0 away to Wexford on Saturday.

WEEKEND RESULTS JULY 13/14

• U19: Sligo Rovers 0 Bohemians 3 (J Moylan 2, D Devoy)
• U17: Bohs-SKB 3 (A Doran, C Conway, P Omochere) Sligo Rovers 3
• U17W: Bohemians 0 Wexford 2
• U15: Bohs-SKB 2 (S Grehan, OG) Cork City 1
• U13: Cork City 2 Bohs-SKB 4 (M Cherico 2, M Tarzan 2)

FIXTURES JULY 20/21/22

• Bohemians U19: Shelbourne (Monday, Dalymount Park, 7.30pm)
• Bohs-SKB U17: Shelbourne (Saturday, AUL, 2pm)
• Bohemians U17W: No fixture
• Bohs-SKB U15s: Shamrock Rovers (Saturday, Roadstone, 3pm)
• Bohs-SKB U13s: Shamrock Rovers (Sunday, St Aidan’s, 12pm)

UCD v BOHEMIANS
SSE Airtricity League
Monday July 15 2019, UCD Bowl, 7.45pm

Keith Ward hopes newcomers to League of Ireland grounds in recent days will have been suitably impressed to make a return trip.

Bohemians and St Patrick’s both entertained Europa League winners Chelsea this week.

First they came to Dalymount Park on Wednesday in Frank Lampard’s first game in the charge of the visitors.

Keith Long’s side found themselves a goal down inside ten minutes.

But the assured response perhaps caught the Londoners somewhat off-guard and Bohs’ endeavours eventually paid off with an equalising goal a minute from time, scored by trialist Eric Molloy, which 14-year-old debutant Evan Ferguson helped to set up.

READ MORE

After six matches in 96 hours, the Bohs U17s reached the final of the San Marino Cup where they faced Belgica Boys yesterday.

A string of six injuries and 32° heat saw Bohs tire in the second half and eventually succumb to a 2-0 defeat.

All the lads can look back and be extremely proud of how they represented the club and country over the five days of competition.

Well done all. Everyone at the club is very proud of you.