Bohemians -v- Sligo Rovers

• Jody Moylan
• Thu, Sep 10 2009


While at the start of the season the FAI Ford Cup may have been given the secondary or indeed tertiary treatment by both Bohemians and Sligo Rovers given the two sides’ involvement in European football, Friday nights’ Cup tie at Dalymount is of paramount importance now, for both clubs.

Bohemians will be looking to wrench themselves away from the mire they have stumbled across in the past fortnight and will be hoping that the stumbling block of two successive defeats (one of those against Rovers) and the bad run most champions come across in a season is now gone and out of their system. This is the game that Pat Fenlon will be looking to in order to put things right and ultimately, regain the high ground on the domestic scene.

After the loss at home to Bray last week Fenlon wasn’t for playing the blame game on anyone but instead was looking inward at his own camp, "We didn't perform on the night. I'm not going to join in blaming the referee. We didn't play well enough. We have to perform at a higher level. We played well in the last 20 minutes. But we have to show that intensity throughout our matches."

Sligo will not exactly relish the trip to Phibsboro but neither will they fear it. They have had a generous share of the spoils between the two sides’ meetings all season (W1 D2 L2) and may well in turn be buoyed by the victory against the Gypsies no more than ten days ago in the league. The Bit O’Red will be focusing on garnering some silverware from a fairly lacklustre season to date. While they will have taken heart from the four league points picked up against Bohs and Drogheda United recently, the reality of their league position (8th) and their first hurdle fall in Europe to a poor Albanian outfit, Vlaznia, is far from the targets Paul Cooke would have set out with last March.

Team news
Bohs will be without Gary Deegan who begins his cup-match suspension period for the sending-off against Dundalk last month. The rest of the squad, including long-time injury, captain Owen Heary, is available for selection. For Sligo Alan Keane will be out due to suspension while Romuald Boco returns from international duty with Benin where, incidentally, his chances of playing in next years’ World Cup ended after a 1-1 draw with Mali in the African qualifiers. Paul Cook will therefore have an almost full squad with no injury worries.

Extratime.ie Prediction: The punter would have got long odds at the start of the season on Bohs losing three on the trot. With just cause. They’re a wounded animal after the recent losses one suspects and they’ll bounce back here. 2-0