Bohemians captain Keith Buckley believes team-mate Jonathan Afolabi is finally getting the recognition he deserves as the club aim to finish the season on a high by getting to the Sports Direct FAI Cup final.
First Division champions Galway United stand in the way of Declan Devine's side in Saturday's semi-final at Eamonn Deacy Park (live on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player) and Afolabi's goals have been key to Bohs' progress in that competition as well as in the league.
After a slow start to the season on the goals front, the 23-year-old's brace against Sligo Rovers last Friday took him to 17 in all competitions, with four of those coming in the cup, including a two-goal haul that earned them a 3-1 quarter-final victory over Drogheda United last month.
Afolabi's form saw him added to Stephen Kenny's Republic of Ireland squad for the Euro 2024 qualifier defeat to the Netherlands and Buckley said the call-up was both a proud day for Bohemians and an apt reward for the striker.
"At the start of the year he was brilliant. His hold-up play and bringing people into play was excellent. He just wasn't getting his rewards in terms of goals," Buckley told RTÉ Sport's Adrian Eames.
"But now that's all come to fruition and it was great to see Johnny getting called up for the Ireland squad a couple of weeks back.
"He's getting rewarded and he's been the main man. Himself and (James) Clarke together have been brilliant.
"At the start of the year, (Jordan) Flores, (Adam) McDonnell, they were all flying. Johnny now is bagging the goals and so is James Clarke, so hopefully those two can do the business at the top end of the pitch."
Afolabi puts his steady improvement across the season down to growing self-belief.
"Confidence is definitely a big thing in that," said the centre-forward, who joined Bohs from Celtic last August.
"Once you get one (goal), everything almost just comes to you after that, so it's just staying ready and not putting yourself down in any situation. Just keep going and working hard, especially on the pitch."
He was not involved last time Bohs played in the Cup final, a 2021 defeat to St Patrick's Athletic on penalties, but has been watching the highlights.
However, Afolabi added that he is not looking further ahead than Saturday's semi at Galway, given their opponents' superb form in 2023, including a 4-0 thrashing of visitors Dundalk in the quarter-final.
"Going away to their place, I don't think they've lost a game at home this whole season so it definitely won't be an easy task but we're definitely well prepared and we're going to keep working throughout the whole week to make sure we're ready," he said.
His captain shared that wariness of John Caulfield's impressive Galway outfit but is counting on the backing of the travelling Bohs support, which he senses has grown considerably since his last Cup outing at Eamonn Deacy Park.
"There's a lot of Bohs fans fighting over tickets because we didn't get enough for the game," Buckley said.
"There are a lot of good decent fans who have been going many years that haven't got tickets.
"I played in the cup here four or five years ago in Galway when we won in the quarter-final and the difference now in terms of fans, I think it was maybe 300 Bohs fans there at the time and now you can probably sell an extra 3,000 tickets.
"That goes to show you how much the club has grown. But again, we've got to win on Saturday and hopefully we come here (at the Aviva) for the final and you want to be winning silverware."
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Watch the Sports Direct FAI Cup semi-finals, Galway United v Bohemians (Saturday 2.30pm) and Cork City v St Patrick's Athletic (Sunday 2.30pm) on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player and follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app
