Bohemians Vs Galway United Preview

Bohemians welcome Galway United to Dalymount Park tonight one week after Bohs’ first defeat of the league season and Galway’s best performance, in a 2-2 draw with Sporting Fingal.

Bohs manager Pat Fenlon is expecting “another tough game”. “Galway have done all right so far, but teams up their game against us and it’ll be tough.”

Fenlon is up against former Bohs manager Sean Connor, and Connor’s re-organized Galway United includes former Bohemian players Stephen O’Donnell and Bobby Ryan as crucial play-makers.

Bohemians collected full points from Galway last season and will hope to continue that impressive haul. Bohs put 11 goals past Galway last season without conceding any.

But the champions are likely to be without three players for the match. Anto Murphy and Stephen Gray (both Achilles) and Mark Rossiter (hamstring) are all expected to miss out. The manager also has to consider his selection options for the second leg of the Setanta Cup semi-final two days later against Linfield.

Fenlon feels the result against Shamrock Rovers was a bit unfair. “I was disappointed with the result but with not the performance. I felt we didn’t deserve to lose the game, although we probably didn’t deserve to win either,” he said.

With a game in hand on St Patrick’s Athletic and the Inchicore side not in league action until Tuesday, Bohemians can jump at least into second place in the league with a win over Galway.

Daniel "Pitchside" Pitcher Twitter: @DanFM104Sport About: Dan "Pitchside" Pitcher provides insight and commentary as the chief soccer and rugby correspondent for Sportspeak.