Buckley targeting Bohs landmark

Keith Buckley is targeting a couple of milestones this season, both for himself and for his club Bohemians.

The 26-year-old player is just 26 league appearances short of the double century mark in the Bohs jersey. He is looking to bridge that gap and also chip in with more goals so that he can help the Gypsies get back to playing in Europe for the first time since 2012.

Speaking to extratime.ie ahead of the start of the new season, Buckley said he believes that Bohs can build on the positivity and hard work ethic at Dalymount Park to progress in the league.

Targets

“Why not aim for Europe?” asked Buckley about a 2019 target for a Bohs team who finished a creditable sixth in the league last season. “People set their targets too low, but we aim for Europe and a good cup run.

“As a personal target I want to get to 200 league appearances for Bohs. I think I’m on 174 now in the league and overall 220 for Bohs, but personally I want to get to 200 in the league. 

“And I want to score more goals. I don’t score many goals and I want to help the team in whatever way you can.”

Devastation

Last season the Gypsies came agonisingly close to making their first FAI Cup final since 2008. Leading Cork City in Dalymount Park with only six minutes left in the semi-final, a tackle from Darragh Leahy led to a controversial penalty that City converted before eliminating Bohs in the cup replay.

That painful event is something that Buckley reckons will spur him on this coming season.



“I want to be able to win something. To come so close last year, it makes you realise. The Dundalk players must be pinching themselves to win every year. There was devastation on Darragh’s face after the second game.

"I felt for him because he felt it was personally because of him, but it was a team thing. Hopefully we can push higher up in the league.” 

Part-time

The set up at Bohs may be viewed by some as part-time, but just because Bohs train in the evening, allowing players and staff to study or work around training. Buckley is adamant that there is nothing part-time about how they train.

“We train Monday and Tuesday night, break on Wednesday, Thursday, match Friday and Saturday. We probably have the same time on the training pitch as the full-time teams.”



He did acknowledge though that their training regime cause difficulty in relation to recovery after games, particularly in the first half of the season when the fixtures are very much front-loaded.

“The only thing is we struggle with is all the games between April and May with the recovery time.” 

New players

The Gypsies have lost a number of key players from last season including Dan Casey, Shane Supple and Daniel Kelly.

However Buckley noted that this has happened on a number of occasions in recent seasons and that the management team of Keith Long and Trevor Croly have been able to recruit wisely or promote youth from within the club to overcome any squad departures.

Bohs have signed some exciting young players who are returning from spells in England to fill some of those gaps.

“How many teams lose five or six players from the starting XI every year consistently and then produce the next year (like Bohs)?  

“We lose a lot of players every year but sometimes you get players in with experience in the league. It’s going to be interesting as we’ve a lot of young lads who are exciting but haven’t played much senior football.”

Additional reporting by Dave Donnelly.

    About Macdara Ferris

    Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile