Heary admits Bohs were fortunate to snatch point
Credit:
Bohemians defender Owen Heary admitted his side had been fortunate to get anything from Friday night’s game against Bray Wanderers at Dalymount Park.
Bohs were handed a dubious penalty just after the hour mark which striker Jason Byrne tucked away to cancel out Alan Cawley’s first-half opener.
Heary told extratime.ie after the match: “We didn’t play well at all. From one to 11 we didn’t turn up. They got a penalty in the first half which gave them something to build on and we went chasing the game after that. Our passing and control was sloppy and we weren’t ourselves at all. Luckily we managed to dig ourselves out with a fortunate penalty. Our penalty should never have been. Although I thought the goal we had disallowed was legitimate and I don’t think ours should have been given.
“I didn’t see their penalty but I heard Liam had his hand on him and if you do that then it’s clearly a penalty. You can’t put your hand on someone in the box.”
The draw leaves Bohs in third spot in the table, two points behind early pace-setters St Patrick’s Athletic. However, while Pat Fenlon’s men have picked up full points on the road this season, Heary admits that their home form remains something of a concern.
“It’s disappointing especially as we’ve done so well on the road, winning three from three. We’ve dropped five points at home now from a possible nine which isn’t good enough. Sometimes when teams come here though they sit in and they got the early goal and did that. But it’s up to us to break them down and we didn’t do that.”
Bohs title credentials will be put firmly to the test in the coming weeks with an away trip to face Drogheda United on Sunday week followed by the visit of second-placed Derry City.
“We’ve tough games coming up but there’s still a long way to go. It’s still very early in the season,” Heary said. “Drogheda will be a tough one away next week and then we’ve Derry at home. We just have to put things right in training this week. Last week training probably wasn’t what it should have been. Attitudes were probably wrong because we beat Rovers last Friday and everyone was up for it. The flowing week we’re playing Bray and people just think they have to turn up but that wasn’t the case.”
Nevertheless, Heary maintains that the club are heading in the right direction and should be challenging come the end of the season. He said: “It’s much better this season and we’re a lot fitter than we were. I think you can see it in the players as a lot of them have toned down. We’ve a small squad and if we can get a few more players then we’ll be challenging at the end.”
