David McMillan believes a few more tweaks to Bohemians' squad during this summer window are necessary to push them on further after an outstanding display in the Dublin derby victory over Shamrock Rovers on Monday night.
Second-placed Bohs came into the game off the back of a damaging defeat at Waterford on Friday but harried and pressed Rovers in the first half at Dalymount Park three days later on route to a 2-0 win.
The result puts Alan Reynolds' side nine points behind their derby rivals with two games in hand in the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division to give a glimmer of hope to neutrals that a title race might still be a possibility.
But looking at the Gypsies' squad, former Dundalk striker McMillan told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast that areas of the squad still need strengthening in spite of their decent run of form in recent weeks, capped by Monday's outstanding display on and off the ball.
"Huge credit to Bohemians and the disappointment from (Alan) Reynolds' point of view is that they've lost so many games as well when they can perform as well as that," he said of a team that has remarkably not drawn a single game in the league this season.
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
"I think if they can get a couple of reinforcements in, particularly in defensive areas... particularly with (Seán) Grehan gone, the fact that they've spent most of the season playing centre-mids at full back will tell me still that - and I thought this at the end of last season and I still think it - there's a bit of tweaking needed to that squad, even if it's just bringing in full backs and centre backs to allow those other midfielders to move into midfield.
"I don't think they're a million miles away. I thought that at the end of last season and I still think a couple of good signings and they can improve and push on.
"Whether they're close enough to challenge Rovers I think is very debatable but certainly from their perspective from where they were earlier in the season, from where Alan Reynolds was at half time in the game in Tallaght a couple of months ago to where he is now, it's brilliant from a Bohs perspective."
Reynolds was under huge pressure from the Bohs fanbase at the time that they fell 2-0 down to Rovers in April but their comeback to win that game sparked a strong run which has lifted them up to second.
Reynolds was able to enjoy the praise from the fans after Monday's game after being pushed towards the front of the stand by his in-form midfielder Ross Tierney and even indulged in some uncharacteristic Jurgen Klopp-like fist-pumping.
His former team-mate Alan Cawley, also speaking on the podcast, expressed delight at the turnaround for the former Waterford boss and ex-Republic of Ireland Under-21 assistant coach.
"I'm delighted because I think he has the makings of a really good team but being a really good manager as well. A lot of people know him as a coach," he said.
"But I'm delighted to see things working out for him as well and they were brilliant (against Rovers), and if they can carry on that form from now till the end of the season, and they don't have the distraction Shamrock Rovers will have with Europe as well, that might help them also.
"So they're in a really good place and if they can just maintain that form, they have a really good chance. But they were brilliant (on Monday night)."
Watch USA v Republic of Ireland on Friday from 2am on RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app
Watch USA v Republic of Ireland on Sunday from 7.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
