Paul Corry believes Dawson Devoy and Ross Tierney can supercharge Bohemians' season after the pair starred in last Friday night's FAI Cup second-round win against Shamrock Rovers at Dalymount Park.
Dayle Rooney's penalty was the difference between the bitter rivals as the Gypsies dug out a deserved, morale-boosting victory.
Their league form has been patchy; Bohs are only four points clear of second-from-bottom Dundalk albeit with two games in hand. Alan Reynolds will hope to pull his side away from the danger zone in the coming weeks, but Corry is confident they have more than enough to do so, particularly with Republic of Ireland Under-21 internationals Devoy and Tierney back on board.
"I really don't think you can underestimate the impact that Tierney and Dawson Devoy ae going to have on this squad," Corry told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"It's amazing what one or two players can do for the bodies around them and the two players on Friday were absolutely superb.
"Dawson Devoy is so good at just keeping the game ticking over. He's always available for the ball off the back four and what he does so well for me, and what I love to see in centre-midfield players, is he plays forward.
"He breaks through lines and he gets the front players on the front foot and into pockets of space, which maybe they've been lacking in recent weeks, where it's just been a little bit sideways and backwards. He really gets them playing forward.
"Then Ross Tierney, he's probably not too different to the player that we saw go away (to Motherwell) initially. His energy is so infectious, with and without the ball. He picks up great pockets that the likes of Devoy can pick him out with. He's great at getting on the half-turn and he's got great legs and great pace to get at back fours.
"He was really the difference when it boils down to it. Dayle Rooney comes off the right-hand side and plays a brilliant reverse ball but Ross is so clever. He runs the wrong side of (Josh) Honohan and just waits for the contact, slows down, and the minute he feels it he goes down and it's a penalty.
"That was the moment that separated the two sides, but I think when you review the 90 minutes, Bohs did more for me."
Shamrock Rovers came into the derby off the back of a thrilling Champions League qualifying round in over Iceland's Vikingur Reykjavik, but they ran out of gas at Dalymount, where the hosts showed huge hunger to get the result.
"I thought going into Dalymount on Friday night that this was actually a more important game for Bohs than it was for Rovers, simply because Rovers have that European campaign that they can focus on," added Corry.
"Bohs, and their league form, it's just about consolidation at this point, so a good cup run would really galvanise everybody.
"They did much more going forward and I think they deserved to go through to the next round. If Rennie (Alan Reynolds) can find more performances like that from that Bohs team, there shouldn't be any problems because they should pick up more points between now and the end of the season."
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