One wonders if Bohemians' best chance of progressing to the FAI Cup final was the first game with Cork City. Some still fancy them to progress. Momentum is key. But is it enough?
Dalymount Park is regarded as having one of the biggest and best pitches in the SSE Airtricity League and Keith Long has found a way of using that asset to help bring goals and wins for his Bohemians side.
The Gypsies are enjoying a remarkable second half of 2018 in league and cup and it is the addition of attacking forces Kevin Devaney and Daniel Kelly that are driving Bohs’ rise.
Since the mid-season break, Bohs are the league’s leading scorers totting up 24 from 11 games – five more than the next best. Their points total is 22 which is only behind Dundalk (25) and Shamrock Rovers (23).
Wingers Kevin Devaney and Daniel Kelly have scored or assisted on 14 of those 24 goals. Two more have been contributed by fellow winger Danny Grant.
The others include two penalties, an own goal and two goals in the game against St Patrick's Athletic that neither Devaney nor Kelly featured in.
Up to the mid-season break, Bohs’ season was churning along with little drama or excitement outside of the melting pot of Dublin derbies against Shamrock Rovers they seem to love so much.
They were eighth in the table at the break and three points out of the relegation zone. Their attack had only managed to score more goals than the bottom two sides and Sligo Rovers, registering a rate of less than a goal per game.
Pat’s were visiting Dalymount Park for the first post-break game and Kevin Devaney brought a thunderous strike to inspire a win.
Dalymount Park or the league cannot have seen few better strikes in recent times. Enjoy:
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The goal showed the qualities spoken of in Devaney by Keith Long on bringing the Sligoman back to Dalymount Park from Galway United in December: "He’s an explosive player – he did some damage against us for Galway this year – and gives us pace and options out wide."
The summer transfer window saw Long also add a little lightning to his squad in Daniel Kelly.
Taking advantage of Bray Wanderers financial mess, Kelly has injected significant pace into a previously sluggish side. The pairing of him on the right and Devaney from the left has left many defences looking clueless.
Despite Devaney’s winner against Pat’s and his assist to Dinny Corcoran getting a draw away to Waterford a week after, they fell badly at home to Sligo Rovers by three goals to nothing.
The match programme saw Long criticise the Dublin 7 playing surface. As the hot summer cooled it has become more to his liking.
A 60th minute sub in that game was Daniel Kelly but with the score at 3-0 and his team a man down there was nothing he could do.
However he put his speedy stamp all over his first start a week later with goals in the 5th and 27th minute as Bohs ran riot with six goals over a hapless Bray Wanderers.
It was a demonstration of the talents seen in him by his manager when Long made the signing: "He gives us a different dimension to our game and the world over, the game at the highest levels, pace hurts teams and he gives us that - it changes our style of play to a certain extent because we have an outlet.
He’s done really well, scored some goals and given us a different dimension to our play. That pace was most visibly on show when he put Derry City to the sword at The Brandywell.
Inside a minute of the game, a beautiful passing and spacing move isolated him against full-back Kevin McHattie.
He glided past to enable Corcoran score the opener.
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In the second half he used his speed to his own benefit getting in behind with the fear of his pace forcing the defence to retreat and allowing him the room to place the ball past Ger Doherty.
The win ended a 10-game losing streak to the Candystripes and was followed up in putting them out of the FAI Cup 20 days later on the same ground.
The second and third goals this time being created as Kelly’s right wing runs left the Derry defence in a daze.
Following that four goals flew past a Cork City team who had not conceded that many (excluding two end-of-season games after a league title was one or lost) since May 2014, early into the Caulfield era.
But their stout defence could not handle the running of Kelly as he went straight through the defence for the second and ran behind for the third.
Bohs have scored three or more goals in four of nine league games before resting most starters against Waterford on Friday; they had done so five times in the previous 36 games.
Points have also been coming with Bohs 0.83 points per game better off with Devaney starting and 1.46 when Kelly does.
Bohs have not reached 50 goals in a season since the 2010 runner-up season, five from the last three games would get there. And they have a visit to Bray which should help.
In the FAI Cup they steamrolled into the semi-finals with 12 goals in three games. There Devaney’s run from the left wing was the creative spark to their goal scored by Dinny Corcoran. Cork regularly fouled Kelly as a cynical means of stopping his threat.
The pivotal part of this discussion is Kelly serves a one-game ban on Monday.
In addition to the two starters, Bohemians have the possibility of adding fellow wide-man Danny Grant to the mix.
The 18-year-old has juggled time with the successful under-19s and the Leaving Cert with seven first team starts and nine appearances from the bench
They have produced three goals and two assists.
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Particular highlights have been in his showings against Shamrock Rovers and St. Pat’s.
Away to Shamrock Rovers was just his second start but his direct running troubled the Tallaght defence early and his 96th minute delivery from wide created the Darragh Leahy winner.
Going up against the Saints last week he was one of 11 changes that brought the average age of the team from 25.6 to 20.7.
He would set up Ali Reghba for the first goal of the game with the rebound from a shot of his leading to the second.
It is a credit to Keith Long who made the bold decision during the transfer window to put his faith in younger players.
Both Paddy Kavanagh and Karl Moore, who had been regular starters out wide, were allowed to leave.
They have almost 500 league games combined of experience but at 32 and 29 respectively no longer appeared to cause defences as many problems.
Long has tinkered with his line-up more than any other manager this season with 91 changes however in the seven games prior to making 11 changes against St. Pat’s he had three unchanged teams, one with a single change and made two changes on three occasions.
This settled line-up is surely contributing to the improved form. Earlier in the season Devaney and Grant were played together three times and earned that two wins and a draw.
Eoghan Stokes and Paddy Kavanagh made starts from the wide areas but both offer more through the middle.
The signing of Kelly has allowed Long to go with two wide attackers in the last seven league games – the only one they didn’t win was at Dundalk.
Overall, Bohs have 2.5 points per game with two out wide and 0.82 in other games.
The extra width and selection consistency has allowed the creative players inside the flourish. It's the loss of Kelly that needs others to step up on Monday
Keith Ward was often played from a wide role in 2017 but consistently in the 10 this year he has having arguably his best season ever with 10 assists – the second-most in the league. Bohs are 0.45 points per game better off in his 22 starts.
Likewise, JJ Lunney struggled for regular selection in central midfield but since the departure of Dylan Watts he has flourished alongside Keith Buckley.
Bohs average an extra 0.34 points per game and 0.61 goals per game in his starts.
Dundalk have achieved great success with two wide players in John Mountney and Daryl Horgan a big part of their success and Michael Duffy and Dylan Connolly even more so this year.
The break-up of Cork’s combination of Karl Sheppard and Stephen Dooley could be seen as a major reason for their drop off in 2018.
Perhaps in Daniel Kelly, Kevin Devaney and Daniel Grant, Keith Long has found his way to bring a trophy-challenging team back to Dalymount Park.
Kelly misses out Monday. If others can produces the goods in Turner's Cross, he could get the chance to make up for it at the Aviva Stadium.
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Watch Cork City v Bohemians live on RTÉ 2 at 7.25pm and on the RTÉ Player, listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra and follow updates on RTÉ.ie.
