Treble the goal for Heary
Credit:
Bohemians captain Owen Heary revealed how nerve-wrecking it’s going
to be for him watching from the stands at Dalymount Park as his side
take to the field against Sligo Rovers in the FAI Cup semi-final.
The defender misses Friday’s game with the Bit o’ red through injury and he admitted he will feel pressure despite not playing. “It is the worse pressure ever watching it,” he told Extratime. “I’m more nervous when I’m watching it, strangely enough. You are sitting there, you’re looking at it and your whole body reacts totally different. If you are playing or even on the bench you’re grand, you can be part of the game. When you are just sitting there watching it it’s the worst feeling ever. It’s the worst feeling for a footballer.”
For Heary a place in the FAI Cup final is what Bohs want but the opportunity to play in the first ever cup final to be staged at the Aviva is an added incentive. He said, “If you lose that’s the end of the road. If you get to the final you have the chance to play in the Aviva and that’s the aim for all the players; to be the first team to play in the Aviva and hopefully the first team to lift a domestic trophy in the Aviva. Everyone likes to make history and everyone likes winning trophies.”
Last year’s beaten finalists stand in Bohs’ way of making it to the D4 venue. Having knocked Bohs out at the quarter-final stages of the competition last year, after a replay, Heary knows only too well the threat Sligo pose. He said, “They won the EA Sports Cup and are on a good run. They beat us last year in the cup. They got a draw in Dalymount and then took us back down to the Showgrounds and beat us. We don’t want a draw, hopefully we can finish it on the night by winning. If we are losing and we end up getting a draw out of it and taking it back there and winning we’ll settle for that.”
He added, “They have a good team and Paul Cook has done well. They play good football, are attack minded and physically strong. I think it’ll be a very good game. When you look at the four teams in the semi- finals they are the four best teams in the league.”
As well as aiming to play at the Aviva, Heary also has another target: to claim his third FAI Cup winner’s medal. The competition to him, as a player, means so much. “I’ve won two medals and I’m going for my hat-trick. It’s the biggest cup competition going. That’s the reason why as players we want to play in it and go to certain clubs to win trophies. What’s great is you are lifting the cup there and then getting a medal around your neck; there are no more football games after it. That’s why to me it is so special,” he said.
Having already secured the Setanta Cup and in with a chance of winning the league and FAI Cup, the former Shels man hopes this could be the best year of his career. He said, “Please God if we manage to win the league and manage to win the FAI Cup it will be a treble. If we achieve that it will be the best year I’ve had in football.”
Though he knows there’s a lot of football to be played yet. “We know that realistically that can change with a kick of a ball. We hope that doesn’t happen. All we want is to keep our own destiny in our own hands and we have managed to do that with two games to go. If we finish it off it will be a fantastic year for us. To be honest, if you give me one or the other; the cup or the league, I’d take the league. It’ll put me out on my own with eight league medals and that’s what I want.”
The defender misses Friday’s game with the Bit o’ red through injury and he admitted he will feel pressure despite not playing. “It is the worse pressure ever watching it,” he told Extratime. “I’m more nervous when I’m watching it, strangely enough. You are sitting there, you’re looking at it and your whole body reacts totally different. If you are playing or even on the bench you’re grand, you can be part of the game. When you are just sitting there watching it it’s the worst feeling ever. It’s the worst feeling for a footballer.”
For Heary a place in the FAI Cup final is what Bohs want but the opportunity to play in the first ever cup final to be staged at the Aviva is an added incentive. He said, “If you lose that’s the end of the road. If you get to the final you have the chance to play in the Aviva and that’s the aim for all the players; to be the first team to play in the Aviva and hopefully the first team to lift a domestic trophy in the Aviva. Everyone likes to make history and everyone likes winning trophies.”
Last year’s beaten finalists stand in Bohs’ way of making it to the D4 venue. Having knocked Bohs out at the quarter-final stages of the competition last year, after a replay, Heary knows only too well the threat Sligo pose. He said, “They won the EA Sports Cup and are on a good run. They beat us last year in the cup. They got a draw in Dalymount and then took us back down to the Showgrounds and beat us. We don’t want a draw, hopefully we can finish it on the night by winning. If we are losing and we end up getting a draw out of it and taking it back there and winning we’ll settle for that.”
He added, “They have a good team and Paul Cook has done well. They play good football, are attack minded and physically strong. I think it’ll be a very good game. When you look at the four teams in the semi- finals they are the four best teams in the league.”
As well as aiming to play at the Aviva, Heary also has another target: to claim his third FAI Cup winner’s medal. The competition to him, as a player, means so much. “I’ve won two medals and I’m going for my hat-trick. It’s the biggest cup competition going. That’s the reason why as players we want to play in it and go to certain clubs to win trophies. What’s great is you are lifting the cup there and then getting a medal around your neck; there are no more football games after it. That’s why to me it is so special,” he said.
Having already secured the Setanta Cup and in with a chance of winning the league and FAI Cup, the former Shels man hopes this could be the best year of his career. He said, “Please God if we manage to win the league and manage to win the FAI Cup it will be a treble. If we achieve that it will be the best year I’ve had in football.”
Though he knows there’s a lot of football to be played yet. “We know that realistically that can change with a kick of a ball. We hope that doesn’t happen. All we want is to keep our own destiny in our own hands and we have managed to do that with two games to go. If we finish it off it will be a fantastic year for us. To be honest, if you give me one or the other; the cup or the league, I’d take the league. It’ll put me out on my own with eight league medals and that’s what I want.”
