Bohemian manager Owen Heary has warned against underestimating Premier Division new boys Athlone Town when the sides meet at Lissywoollen on Monday.
Mick Cooke’s side are propping up the table after losing all of their opening five games, but Heary pointed to their improved performance in Friday’s 3-2 defeat against high-flying Drogheda United and said: “They may be bottom but they really put it up to Drogheda, who are right up there at the moment.
“They’re new to the division, they’ve a new manager and they’ve a lot of new players. But they are improving. It’s always a problem, that people think there are easy games. It’s my job to make sure the players don’t think like that.”
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While Bohs went into Friday’s game against Bray Wanderers looking for a win, Heary was pleased by the second-half performance of his 10 men as they battled back to secure a late point through Dinny Corcoran.
Dean Delany’s foul on Jake Kelly after 20 minutes left the Gypsies both a man down and a goal down as referee Sean Grant pointed to the spot and gave the goalkeeper his marching orders. Bray midfielder Kelly was carried off on a stretcher with a fractured ankle, while Graham Kelly beat replacement netminder Lee Murphy with the resultant penalty.
Bohs were slow to respond in the first half, but returned after the break with a renewed sense of purpose. Heary said: “We came out with a game-plan for the second half. It’s difficult with 10 men but we knew if we kept our concentration, kept the ball and stayed in the game that with 15 minutes to go, we could bring on Jay Byrne, go three at the back and go for it. Thankfully Dinny Corcoran got the goal we deserved and that at least got us a point.”
Heary was critical of referee Grant’s decision to send off Delany as he believed “Derek Pender was behind Deano when the foul was committed and had the situation covered, so it wasn’t a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
“It looked like the referee was reaching for a yellow before the Bray players got involved,” he added. Heary also questioned the consistency of some other decisions and queried bookings handed out to Steven Beattie, Dan Byrne and even Bray’s Ismahil Akinade.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “There was a lot of time-wasting – Bray players were kicking the ball away when we were awarded throw-ins and nothing was done about it. Yet then you’ve players being yellow-carded for nothing.
“There’s a lack of consistency there and it can be frustrating for managers. Refereeing decisions have cost us in recent weeks. You look back to the Rovers game when they were awarded a penalty when we should have had a throw-in and then Dinny had a perfectly good goal ruled out. Referees can look back and go ‘I made a mistake’, but decisions are affecting results and affecting game-plans.”
Heary wished Jake Kelly a speeding recovery from his injury, adding: “It was just unfortunate, he seemed to twist his knee when he went in. It’s awful for such a young player and it looks like he could be out for a while.”
For Monday’s trip, Bohs are once again without Dave Mulcahy (knee), who has returned to training, and Anto Murphy (hamstring), while Delany will serve his one-match ban for Friday’s dismissal. Heary hopes to have a full squad to choose from on Friday when Limerick come to Dalymount Park.
