Alan Reynolds hopes the mid-season break can act as a reset for Bohemians as they look to get back to winning ways and to push back up the table.
Bohs headed into the break on a sour note when they conceded an injury-time goal to lose 2-1 to Derry City at Dalymount Park a fortnight ago.
That defeat leaves Bohs in eighth position in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division, albeit with games in hand, in many cases several, on all the teams ahead of them.
Reynolds has been busy making changes to his squad in recent weeks as he looks to tackle the second half of the season head-on.
Bart Kukulowicz, Michael Lilander and Sten Reinkort all had their contracts terminated by mutual consent, while Luke Matheson returned to Bolton Wanderers after his loan spell came to an end.
One major arrival was announced last week, with Ross Tierney returning from Motherwell. He featured in a behind-closed-doors friendly against TNS at the Oscar Traynor Centre on Monday, where Filip Piszczek scored both of Bohs’ goals in a 2-1 win, but he will have to wait until the transfer window opens on Monday before he can play in a competitive game.
Reynolds expects to announce further additions in the coming weeks but for now, his focus has turned to getting the better of his former mentor Stephen Kenny at Richmond Park.
Tomorrow’s opposition are three points ahead of Reynolds’ men but have played four games more, and St Pat’s come into this game buoyed by a 96th-minute winner at home to Shamrock Rovers a fortnight ago.
Reynolds said: “Stephen will have St Pat’s well prepared but we will be as well. We have our own game-plan and we have worked on a lot of things.
“Richmond Park is a great place to play football and there should be a great atmosphere, so everyone is looking forward to it after last weekend off.
“St Pat’s had a good result, scoring in the last minute, so they went into the break thriving on that so I’m sure Stephen will be looking to build on that.”
Reynolds comes into this game having addressed 250 of the club’s members at a members forum on Wednesday where he was joined by assistant manager Stephen O’Donnell and first-team coach Derek Pender.
It was the first opportunity for Reynolds to meet with the club’s members after his appointment at the end of March.
He said: “It was important to do. It was something that we wanted to do since I came in and we felt after the mid-season break was the right time to do it.
“It’s easy to do those things when things are going well but there is frustration there, which we get. There is frustration from everybody, so it was important to have that first conversation with our members and tell them what we are here to do.
“We know where we want to go. There is a short-term plan and a long-term plan. We want to change the culture here, and we are working on it.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time. We are chipping away with new signings, which is something we discussed with the members last night, but they have to be the right signings. That is the important thing. I know what type of player I want to bring to the club.
“We want good players with the right attitude and desire to get to where we want to be. We have brought Ross Tierney in, we finally got Jake Carroll playing before the break, and we are looking at more because we know we have to add to what we have here.
“Ross fits the mould of the type of player we want to bring in, and Jake brings the kind of experience at the back that we need. He is serious about his football and a model professional, similar to Keith Buckley and Rob Cornwall, who we have really missed this year.
“We want to build on what we have and build a team that has passion and real energy about it. That’s what I want and I believe that’s what this club wants.
“Listening to our members, I think they understand the phase we are in. There is frustration but they know we are working at bringing the right players in and at getting things right.
“We have got to stick together to swing it around. I am confident we will, and that we will be in a stronger place united together.”
Team news
Bohs are likely to be without Declan McDaid and Dylan Connolly.
Brian McManus, James McManus, Rob Cornwall and Keith Buckley remain out.
