BOHEMIANS v BRAY WANDERERS (Tonight, Dalymount Park, 7.45pm)
Bohemians finally get their competitive season up and running when they host Bray Wanderers in tonight’s rescheduled Leinster Senior Cup tie and manager Owen Heary wants his side to start the campaign as they mean to go on.
Handed the reins by then boss Pat Fenlon for the Gypsies’ Leinster Senior Cup games in 2011, Heary led Bohs – made up almost entirely of players from his Under-19 side – to victories against a Shamrock Rovers team laden down by league winners and Shelbourne before falling short in the final against St Pat’s.
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He is determined to go one better this year, starting with victory against Bray. He said: “People might say, ‘ah it’s the Leinster Senior Cup, it’s only a Mickey Mouse trophy,’ but a trophy is a trophy. We want to go through tonight and we want to go on and win the competition.”
The game was originally due to take place on Saturday February 15 but was postponed to protect the Dalymount pitch from heavy rain. Heary was keen to get the game rescheduled before next week’s league opener away to UCD and said: “We wanted a game on grass. Our last two games were on synthetic surfaces, so we really needed to get the lads a game on a proper surface before the league starts.”
Despite pre-season being hampered by bad weather earlier this month, Heary reckons his players are back up to speed after games against Tolka Rovers and Shelbourne last week.
Bohs beat Tolka 2-1 at IT Blanchardstown 10 days ago but Shels frustrated the Gypsies to earn a deserved 1-1 draw at Scribblestown last Friday.
Heary said: “The Shels game in particular was a very good test for us. For the first 10 or 15 minutes, we barely got near the ball. Shels played at a high tempo and it’s good for our players at this stage of the season to be able to get back into the habit of knowing how to react to that kind of situation. It makes them stronger and makes them increase their own tempo. Hopefully we’ll have more of the same tonight.”
Anto Murphy (hamstring) is the only absentee for tonight’s game, with Heary adding: “It’s not a tear or anything, it’s just a strain but we don’t want to risk him.”
General admission: €10. Members: €5. Students/children/senior citizens: €5.
