A STRONG second-half showing was key as Bohemians earned a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Sligo Rovers at Dalymount Park on Friday night.
The Bit O’Red had stifled their opponents for the majority of the opening period, reducing them to a couple of half-chances.
However, Bohs approached the second half with a renewed vigour and intensity that deservedly saw them over the line.
A tactical switch at the break helped to increasingly swing the balance in the hosts’ favour.
Liam Buckley’s side had coped relatively well in the first half with the dual attacking threat of Promise Omochere and Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe.
In the second 45, the two players swapped places — Omochere moved into a central role and Junior shifted to the left-sided attacking position.
Sligo found it increasingly difficult to cope with the pair thereafter — and Junior ultimately bagged a goal while Omochere assisted twice.
“I thought it definitely worked,” boss Keith Long said afterwards. “Promise caused different problems. [Colm] Horgan had got the better of Promise in the first half, [he's] a little bit tight when he’s restricted by the line.
“Junior is a very clever player so he finds different ways, he’s cute. But Promise is younger and less experienced, he’s 21 years of age now. He lacks game experience, and game age because he hasn’t played as much as some of the other players with the injuries that he’s had over the years, so he’s still learning all the time. But I felt moving him centrally caused them problems and we capitalised on it — Junior got the goal from that position on the pitch, Promise started creating chances, two assists in the game tonight centrally.”
🎥 | GOAL!
— SSE Airtricity League (@SSEAirtricityLg) May 20, 2022
Dawson Devoy gives @bfcdublin the lead against @sligorovers after some great work from Jordan Flores and Promise Omochere 👏
Watch live | https://t.co/ZYnDftCIOZ 📺#LOI | #LOITV pic.twitter.com/fUskTgIlwS
Bohs had looked set for a comfortable 2-0 win as the game drew to a close, but a superb 87th-minute effort by Sligo substitute Adam McDonnell from the edge of the area ensured a nervy climax.
Dropped points would have been harsh on the Gypsies, who had been the better of the team for the majority of the contest, with Sligo only coming to life in an attacking sense in the dying minutes.
The victory did come at a cost for the home side, with Canadian winger Kris Twardek, Brighton loanee Sam Packham and young full-back Max Murphy (who had replaced Packham) all going off injured.
“Kris, I’m not sure, to be honest with you, it doesn’t it doesn’t look great at the minute,” Long said of Twardek’s knee issue.
“He felt something go a little. Obviously, it’s very early. We’ll have to send him for a scan to see what the outcome of that is.
“Sam has a calf issue. There was a bit of tightness in his calf and we felt that it inhibited his performance so he had to come off.
“But Max came in and did well. Ali [Coote] came in, and Ali’s a very experienced player for us as well. So I always rely on Ali to come in and do well. We felt tonight that the bench would be important to us.
“We had Liam Burt on the bench, he’s had a groin niggle for a while. We’ve been trying to manage that a little bit and we had to take him out of the firing line with the games following Friday, Monday and Friday next week in mind. So hopefully, the extra 48 hours will do Liam the power of good in terms of recovery.”
On Murphy’s knock towards the end of the game, he added: “I think he’s okay. I think he was a little bit worried, so we had to make that decision instantly.
“We were just asking should we have done another substitution at that time as well. But the boys wanted to fight. Jordan Flores gave me the thumbs up even though he was fatigued, he got a bit of cramp, Promise got a bit of cramp, and Levo [Conor Levingston], who’s been doing exams, he’s had a lot of sleep disruption in a stressful time. Anybody that was in college [will know the feeling]. So he’s had a tough week mentally.
“It’s so important to try and follow up tonight in the Dublin Derby [against St Pat’s on Monday]. We’re going to bring great support. The supporters have been coming out down in Inchicore, it’s a great place to play. It’s a nice, tight compact ground. They’ve lost tonight, we’ve won. I don’t think that really counts for anything. It’s another Dublin Derby. We’ve beaten them here, they’ll fancy their chances over there.
“There’s not much between a lot of the teams in this league, so it’s important that we try and back it up. ‘Win after winning’ is what we said in the dressing room tonight, to try and do that if we can. We haven’t done that this year. So that’s the challenge now for us to try and do that.
“We’ve just got to try and back it up on Monday, see how the bodies are and see what type of side we can put out because obviously, we’ve got a couple of injuries, a couple of niggles, a couple of tired bodies there tonight. But tired is good, aching bodies are good when you win and come off the pitch having put in a shift and you’ve earned those three points.”
Meanwhile, Sligo manager Liam Buckley warned his side that they face the prospect of a “bang average” season if they don’t swiftly improve their displays.
“The first half wasn’t too bad but in the second half, we give a couple of stupid goals away. From our end of it, we didn’t play well enough in the second half. In the first half, there wasn’t a lot in it, I thought. In spells, we passed it quite well but not too much but in the second half, it wasn’t good enough.
“The first goal is so important in these games. They bagged it. They worked hard and they wanted it more than we did.
“We have to get the performance levels better than that and if we don’t we’ll have a bang average season. Do I see more in our group? I do but we need to see it on the pitch, there’s no point in me seeing it at training. We need to bring it onto the pitch. We’ll see how we go going forward.
“There’s obviously an opportunity to potentially strengthen up [in the summer transfer window] there but the group that we have, there’s more in them.
“We have to be more creative in our play and create more chances through our performance. We’ve not done that tonight, certainly not in the second half, that’s for sure.
“We just didn’t come out with the same commitment that we did in the first half, albeit there wasn’t a lot of chances for either team. Lookit, we’ve another important game Monday [at home to Derry]. We’ve just got to pick ourselves up and see where we go from there.”
He’s growing into himself now is Promise literally and figuratively. He’s a proper handful for defenders with his strength and still only very young been unfortunate with injuries but regular game time will just keep improving. Up the Bohs!