Fenlon slams new Oriel Park surface
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Bohemians manager Pat Fenlon has hit out at the use of artificial pitches in the League of Ireland. After watching his side overcome Dundalk by a solitary Joseph Ndo goal on the Louth club's newly laid plastic pitch on Friday night, Fenlon was critical of what he referred to as "a very unnatural surface".
Speaking to reporters after the game, he said: "The pitch looks flat, but underfoot it's a bit uneven. I won't complain too much because we won the game but I don't think they should be playing senior football on it. I think it's great for training and it brings in great revenue for Dundalk, but it's just unnatural. The ball doesn't roll naturally and it's a completely different game to what it is on grass."
Bohs took a long time to find their bearings on the new surface in Friday night's game and were perhaps fortunate not to be behind, with Dundalk missing several chances in the opening hour. However, the Gyspies grabbed all three points late on when Ndo headed home an Owen Heary cross.
According to Fenlon: "We were looking at the game and thinking that there wasn't much in it. They had a couple of chances in the first half and it was probably one of those nights where we would've been happy to get out with a point. It's a difficult place to come so the three points are massive for us. It was a fairly tense affair and it took a great goal to win it."
Fenlon added: "It's a challenge working out where to play Joseph [Ndo] and trying to get him into the team. You know when he's in the team he gives us different things. We could have played him or Gary Deegan in the centre of midfield but I just thought it was going to be one of those games where we needed to dig in and that's the way it turned out to be. He hasn't really done a lot of training and his fitness levels probably need to improve, but I thought he did well."
Ndo started the game on the right wing. However, midway through the second half, Fenlon replaced striker Glen Crowe with midfielder Deegan and pushed the Cameroonian international further forward. Fenlon said: "I just thought that Glen wasn't giving us enough in the forward area. Joseph did ok for us when he was on the right, we asked him to do a job for us and he did it quite well, but when he goes into that middle area he's very difficult to mark. He's big and he's strong and he attracts people to him. When he does that it opens the game up. I've never seen him score a header in his life, but we'll take it. I don't think he even got a headed goal in training in all the years I've had him."
In what was perhaps a sideways swipe at his opposite number on the night, Sean Connor, who was sent to the stands in the final stages of the game for over-protesting a decision not to award his side a penalty, Fenlon added: " It's nice to come up and win the game with no controversy on our side is great and get on the bus and go home. We said that at the start of the year. We've such a small squad that discipline is going to be key for us. We had two yellow cards on Friday night for tackles more than anything else, so our discipline was very good."
Due to a string of injuries, Fenlon went into the game with just four substitutes on the bench. "We looked at maybe bringing in one or two of the other young kids, but it's pointless really as we don't really have any young defenders that are good enough at the moment and that's what we really would have needed. That's something we've got to look at now, to try and develop our young defenders a little bit quicker," Fenlon said.
The Gyspies will look to maintain their winning start to the season when they welcome Derry City - the side many believe will be Bohs' main contenders for the title this season - to Dalymount Park on Friday night. Fenlon is hoping that by the time that game comes around, the club's injury problems will have eased somewhat. He said: "We're hopeful that we'll maybe have two of them back for next week's game. We're going to need them as Glen Cronin hurt his hamstring in the Dundalk game so that would leave us very, very short. I'm hoping Jason Byrne should be able to train on Tuesday. He had an injection last Thursday on a back problem. I'm hoping we might also get Brian Shelley back on Tuesday. Sean Byrne we're looking at the Tuesday after the Derry game (March 17th), while Conor Powell is probably around three weeks away from a return."
Speaking to reporters after the game, he said: "The pitch looks flat, but underfoot it's a bit uneven. I won't complain too much because we won the game but I don't think they should be playing senior football on it. I think it's great for training and it brings in great revenue for Dundalk, but it's just unnatural. The ball doesn't roll naturally and it's a completely different game to what it is on grass."
Bohs took a long time to find their bearings on the new surface in Friday night's game and were perhaps fortunate not to be behind, with Dundalk missing several chances in the opening hour. However, the Gyspies grabbed all three points late on when Ndo headed home an Owen Heary cross.
According to Fenlon: "We were looking at the game and thinking that there wasn't much in it. They had a couple of chances in the first half and it was probably one of those nights where we would've been happy to get out with a point. It's a difficult place to come so the three points are massive for us. It was a fairly tense affair and it took a great goal to win it."
Fenlon added: "It's a challenge working out where to play Joseph [Ndo] and trying to get him into the team. You know when he's in the team he gives us different things. We could have played him or Gary Deegan in the centre of midfield but I just thought it was going to be one of those games where we needed to dig in and that's the way it turned out to be. He hasn't really done a lot of training and his fitness levels probably need to improve, but I thought he did well."
Ndo started the game on the right wing. However, midway through the second half, Fenlon replaced striker Glen Crowe with midfielder Deegan and pushed the Cameroonian international further forward. Fenlon said: "I just thought that Glen wasn't giving us enough in the forward area. Joseph did ok for us when he was on the right, we asked him to do a job for us and he did it quite well, but when he goes into that middle area he's very difficult to mark. He's big and he's strong and he attracts people to him. When he does that it opens the game up. I've never seen him score a header in his life, but we'll take it. I don't think he even got a headed goal in training in all the years I've had him."
In what was perhaps a sideways swipe at his opposite number on the night, Sean Connor, who was sent to the stands in the final stages of the game for over-protesting a decision not to award his side a penalty, Fenlon added: " It's nice to come up and win the game with no controversy on our side is great and get on the bus and go home. We said that at the start of the year. We've such a small squad that discipline is going to be key for us. We had two yellow cards on Friday night for tackles more than anything else, so our discipline was very good."
Due to a string of injuries, Fenlon went into the game with just four substitutes on the bench. "We looked at maybe bringing in one or two of the other young kids, but it's pointless really as we don't really have any young defenders that are good enough at the moment and that's what we really would have needed. That's something we've got to look at now, to try and develop our young defenders a little bit quicker," Fenlon said.
The Gyspies will look to maintain their winning start to the season when they welcome Derry City - the side many believe will be Bohs' main contenders for the title this season - to Dalymount Park on Friday night. Fenlon is hoping that by the time that game comes around, the club's injury problems will have eased somewhat. He said: "We're hopeful that we'll maybe have two of them back for next week's game. We're going to need them as Glen Cronin hurt his hamstring in the Dundalk game so that would leave us very, very short. I'm hoping Jason Byrne should be able to train on Tuesday. He had an injection last Thursday on a back problem. I'm hoping we might also get Brian Shelley back on Tuesday. Sean Byrne we're looking at the Tuesday after the Derry game (March 17th), while Conor Powell is probably around three weeks away from a return."
