Alan Reynolds says he will not judge his Bohemians side after one game in charge but says they need to learn from their mistakes quickly to move up the table this season.
Reynolds’ side impressed in the early exchanges in his first game in charge away to Shamrock Rovers on Friday night and with the game scoreless at half-time, there was reason to be optimistic ahead of the second half.
But Bohs were subjected to a bruising performance by the hosts, succumbing to a 3-1 defeat that could have been more, with Declan McDaid’s goal in injury-time of little consolation.
Reynolds said: “I’m not going to judge the team after that one game. It’s going to take time for me to put in what I want to, and to get the team playing the way I want them to. But it was a very tough start.
“The game-plan early in the first half worked well and we were solid defensively. But we know that we needed to keep the ball a lot better.
“The goals we gave away early in the second half were cheap goals to concede, and we were chasing the game from then on.
“You can’t give a team like Rovers a leg-up like that. We needed to start the second half a lot better than we did.
“There’s a lot to learn from the game. I was pleased with some aspects early on but we didn’t keep the ball, didn’t pass the ball well enough, we were outdone physically at times and rode our luck when it came to defending set-pieces. These are all things we need to work on and get right quickly.”
Bohs face another tough away game this evening against a Galway United side buoyed by a win away to Derry City on Friday night.
Reynolds knows the challenge ahead having been assistant manager at Waterford when they lost 2-1 to the Tribesmen at Eamon Deacy Park last month.
He added: “We are looking forward to the trip but we know it’s another tough game. We had the players in for their recovery session on Saturday after Friday’s game and we had a good training session yesterday, so they know what is expected of them.
“I was only up in Galway a few weeks ago with Waterford. Galway are a very good side and are very effective. The way they’re playing is very smart. People will talk about John Caulfield and Ollie Horgan and playing one style but there’s a lot more to them than that.
“They had a great win on Friday against a good Derry side so we know that it is going to be a hard game. We will make some changes after Friday, and we will need everybody at their very best to get a result.”
Team news
Bart Kukulowicz, Martin Miller and Filip Piszczek are doubts. Keith Buckley and Rob Cornwall remain out.
