Alan Reynolds has challenged his Bohemians side to sign off the season with something for the Dalymount Park faithful to cheer about tomorrow when they host Galway United on the final day of the season.
The concession of an injury-time equaliser away to seventh-placed Waterford last week means the Gypsies can no longer catch Reynolds’ former club, with focus shifting to plans for the 2025 campaign.
Reynolds said: “It’s been a difficult season for the club. We know how frustrating and disappointing it has been for supporters. I know supporters are probably tired of hearing me say that, so we just want to end the season with something for them to cheer about as we look ahead to next year now.
“Work has already started on our plans for next season. We have a lot of work to do to make the improvements necessary to push on as a club.
“Players will obviously move on and we have identified the priority areas where we need to strengthen. We have big players coming back too.
“Before I came in, the club started off with Keith Buckley ruled out for the season and then lost Rob Cornwall on the opening night for the rest of the season too.
“As I mentioned before, losing players and personalities of that calibre was a massive blow. They are big players and leaders in really important positions so it’s been great to have them back training with the team over the past couple of weeks, alongside James McManus who really has had no luck this season with injuries either.
“All three of them are bursting to make up for lost time next season and we are really looking forward to working with them over the closed season and into pre-season.
“We also brought in players during the summer who I believe will push on now in the closed season with a proper pre-season working closely with us under their belt, and we have strong players with strong personalities coming back from injury now too.
“So despite the disappointment of this season, I feel we have a lot to work with here for next season, alongside the areas we have identified where we need to strengthen to push this club on to where it should be.”
Bohs come into tomorrow’s game frustrated once more after working hard to take the lead against Waterford at the RSC last Friday only to concede an injury-time equaliser.
There were positives from the game, however, with James Talbot making his first appearance of the season and U19 players Rhys Brennan and Markuss Strods making their league debuts as second-half substitutes.
Reynolds said: “The first half was a let-down and a bit of a non-event. The second half was night and day compared to the first, but I thought we were really good in the second half. We went ahead and we were disappointed not to hold on to the lead having led into injury-time.
“It was a great ball in from Dawson Devoy for our goal and a great header from James Clarke too, who it has to be said has been given a difficult task in a difficult season being asked to play as a striker. There’s a lot of pressure with that, and he has worked really hard in that role.
“Conceding late on having worked so hard to get ahead in the game has happened too often this season and is something we need to cut out of our game next season.
“We’ve drawn too many games we should have won and lost games we should have got something out of. We need players who have that ruthless streak when games are in the balance to get where we need to be as a club.
“So there was frustration at the end of the game but there were positives to take from it too. We were able to give league debuts to Rhys Brennan and Markuss Strods off the bench and bringing young quality players through who can make an impact for the first team will be crucial for us over the coming seasons.
“It’s something Bohs teams over the past decade have been really good at. You look at the likes of Ross Tierney and Dawson Devoy, who we brought back to the club in the summer. They are two of the best young midfielders in the league now, and they were given their break in the first team and a platform to show what they can do here at a young age having come through the academy teams.
“The same goes for Cian Byrne who has come into his own this season having been thrown in at the deep end.
“This club has a great track record of bringing players through and there’s a lot of work going on within the academy structures to ensure we get back to that, and that we improve on it. I think most people will be aware by now of the work going on to develop the Oscar Traynor Centre into a facility that can help develop the best young talent in the country.
“There have been big improvements already and we want to ensure that from there those players have pathways into the first team and to establish themselves as the likes of Dawson, Rossi, and players who have moved abroad to other leagues, did previously.
“That is what this club is building towards, and we want to see more of those players featuring regularly next season.
“The likes of Rhys and Markuss are very much a part of that. They are players with real potential and ones for the future.
“There are more like them and getting them in over the closed season, nurturing their potential they have and testing them at first-team level next season is a key part of how we want to develop and strengthen our squad, and build towards getting this club back to where it belongs.”
Team news
Bohemians will have the same squad to choose from as last week, with Rob Cornwall, Leigh Kavanagh, Ross Tierney, Keith Buckley, James McManus and James Akintunde all still unavailable for selection.
