Callaghan - "We deserved to lose".

Friday night saw Monaghan United claim their first win of the season, with a 2-1 victory over Bohemians. The game also brought to an end The Gypsies’ recent run of form that has seen them win their last two games. After the game Extratime.ie caught up with Bohemians manager Aaron Callaghan and asked him for his thoughts on the game.

“A little bit disappointed. Our poorest performance of the season and I’m disappointed for the players because to be fair they have been fantastic for the last eight or nine weeks. We deserved to lose the game. I think Monaghan were up for it, we didn’t seem to be up for it on the night, and that’s disappointing. But hopefully we get back on the bike next week.”

The game didn’t take long to produce its first incident, with Monaghan United keeper Chris Bennion dismissed inside the opening minutes after taking down Karl Moore. Despite the numerical disadvantage, Monaghan refused to sit back, and went on to play the better football.

“I think sometimes statistically and traditionally you see teams with ten men tend to improve for some reason. Once they got the first goal, they had something to fight for. I thought they played well tonight and on the night they were a better team than us. That’s going to happen in this league.”

Friday’s victory saw Monaghan move level with Cork City and Bray Wanderers, and only two points currently separate the bottom five clubs.

“Looking at the two teams that got beaten six nil last week, both won. That tells you how tight the league is!”

Davie Byrne came off during the first half and was replaced by Keith Buckley the first half as Bohemians tried to address the imbalance in the game, and the former Longford Town manager confirmed that this was entirely a tactical decision.

“No we were trying to get a little bit more pace on the wings. I thought we were just a yard off those players in the first half, and we tried to get more pace in around them and it was a tactical change moreso.”

Having fallen behind to a Stephen Maher goal, it was another substitute who restored parity just after the hour mark. Ryan McEvoy picked the ball up 35 yards out from goal, and after taking a touch unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the net – surely a contender for goal of the season. For a long time it looked like this wonder strike would give Bohemians a share of the spoils until Jason Marks netted the winner in the closing minutes.

“To be fair it was a wonder strike and we thought we’d get back in the game through that wonder strike, but unfortunately they got us on the break.”

Bohemians recent run of results had come on the back of a change to a 343 formation. As the clock ticked by in Dalymount and Bohemians chased an equaliser, Bohemians deployed an even more attacking 424 formation and Callaghan indicated that he wouldn’t be afraid to change things up this season as the occasion called for.

“It was really 4-2-4 at the end. We were just trying to throw extra bodies in and get the full backs going forward as well. When you’re 2-1 down at home, you need to try a few different things to see if you can get a break here or there, but unfortunately we didn’t get it.”

Next up for Bohemians is a trip to Oriel Park to play Dundalk. Despite Friday’s defeat and their “poorest performance of the season”, Callaghan reckons that motivation won’t be a problem.

“[There will be] no problem picking them up. They know one disappointing performance to be fair in eight or nine games isn’t bad like - even though we didn’t get results in some of those games. The players will be fine. We’ll get back in training on Sunday and we’ll prepare as we do for Dundalk next Friday.”