Eir Sport have released a new promotional video ahead of Friday night’s Dublin derby with Bohemians taking on Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium.
Bohemians defeated Rovers with a 3-1 win at Dalymount Park on the opening day of the season, however, the Gypsies have won just one game since that victory – a 2-1 win over bottom placed Bray at Dalymount last month.
Bohs have not won an away game this season but manager Keith Long seemingly has little regard for the form guide when it concerns the Dublin derby.
The Football.
The Fandom.
The History.
The Divide.
The Pain.
The Ecstasy.
The Bragging Rights of Dublin.The #DublinDerby is live on eir sport tonight. We open the show with this. 7.30pm on eir sport 2… #LOI pic.twitter.com/44v5tpvRuZ
— eir Sport (@eirSport) April 13, 2018
“Previous results against Rovers will have little bearing on this one,” Long told the club’s website.
“Previous meetings, form, your position in the table… they can go out the window. It can come down to which side wants it more.
“It’s not always the prettiest spectacle, the priorities for both teams is always the result. Rovers will have been hurting after us coming from behind to beat them the last time so as a team, we have to be prepared for a backlash.
“But our focus has to be on ourselves and our own performance. We expect a big vocal travelling crowd and both team and supporters will be looking to get the result.”
Meanwhile Rovers manager Stephen Bradley insists that his side will be fine as long as they come ready to play.
The Hoops have lost two of their last three games but Bradley is confident that they’ll be able to continue their strong home form this season.
“It’s a big game, we know that. If we come ready to play like we did last week and have done for most of the season then we’ll be fine.
“The players know it’s a big game, players like Sean [his first derby] have heard a lot of talk about it. They know it’ll be a good atmosphere here and that it’ll be a tough game.
“Bohs will come to play and fight for 90 minutes. We’ve had them watched the last few games and they’ve been unlucky.
“We don’t go into games feeling we ‘owe’ teams one, we just want to win the game and tomorrow will be no different. I haven’t heard that the pitch is a concern, usually the ground staff are really good and look after it so I’d imagine on Friday it’ll be fine.
“We’ll look to continue our home form, hopefully we play to our levels and that’s enough to get us the three points. Joey O’Brien is back but Sean Boyd is still another week away. Trevor Clarke had his operation yesterday. It was a success, I’m hopeful he’ll be back before the end of the season.”
