KEITH LONG HAS been earning plenty of plaudits for the job he is doing at Bohemians this term.
And rightly so.
Working on a shoestring budget and missing key players, the Gypsies boss weathered the storm after a difficult start to the 2017 campaign that left them with real fears of being one of the three clubs relegated from the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.
Despite going down to 1-0 to Dundalk after an 89th-minute winner from Ciaran Kilduff last time out, Bohs sit comfortably in seventh — with a five-point advantage over tomorrow night’s opponents Finn Harps ahead of their trip to Finn Park.
“If the league was blown up now, it would be an unbelievable season for us,” attacking midfielder Keith Ward told The42 earlier today. “Cork will win the title but if you look at it after that we’re probably the team that’s done the second best in terms of over-achieving.
“Our budget isn’t great but we know we’ve a good team and Bohs is a massive club, so the money might not be there but you get to play at Dalymount every week in front of good fans. That’s one thing that Bohs will always have.
“Coming off the pitch last Wednesday, it was disappointing to concede late after we had played so well. It was a strange feeling in the dressing room as the manager was happy with our performance.
“Sometimes when you come in after playing well and conceding like that it’s hard to be critical. They scored a good goal to be fair and it’s not like we were really poor for it.
“To be fair to Keith, he was positive and told us to keep our heads up. We will go into tomorrow’s game confident because we’ve been going well the last couple of weeks.”
Arguably one of Long’s finest achievements this season has been his ability to get the best out of Ward. Deployed in the number 10 role behind a lone striker, the 26-year-old playmaker has proved a breath of fresh air since arriving from Derry City back in December.
Ward, from Swords on Dublin’s northside, has a knack for finding little pockets of space to create chances and his link-up play with centre forward Dinny Corcoran has produced several vital goals — including a beautifully-executed decider in their 2-1 win over Bray Wanderers.
“For me, working with Keith this year has been great,” explains Ward. “Him and Trev [Croly] work very well together as a partnership. He just lets you go out and play, and that’s all you can really ask.
“He trusts you to go out there and doesn’t put pressure on anyone. He’s a very good manager and someone I’ve been very impressed with since coming in.
Over the last few years, other managers wouldn’t have trusted me with the other side of the game. Keith says to me ‘I don’t expect you to do a lot off the ball, but just get back around’.
“Others would be focused on my weaknesses, whereas Keith focused on my strengths and says ‘look, you’re in the hole. That’s your job, but just help out on the defensive side’.
“I’ve buzzed off the fact that he lets me express myself. It has been going well for me the past few weeks with a couple of goals and a few assists. I’ve been getting nice reviews and I haven’t had that in a long time. I put the form down to Keith and the rest of the team.”
It’s nine long years since former Belvedere and Cherry Orchard schoolboy Ward made his League of Ireland debut with UCD and, at 26, he could very well be playing the best football of his career right now.
Transitioning to senior football with the Students as a fresh-faced teenager was a daunting experience, as he remembers.
“Going in, it was very scary,” Ward says. “My mate got me up training and I was thrown in with the first team one Sunday morning. It was full of men and even showering afterwards I was like ‘what is this?’.
“But UCD are probably the best club to start off with, especially when Martin [Russell] was there. If you put our UCD team together now, we’d probably win the league.
“We had the two McMillans [Evan and David], Greg Bolger, Andy Boyle, Paul Corry, Ronan Finn — it was a serious team.”
After winning the First Division and returning to the top flight, Ward was signed by Ian Foster at Dundalk in 2011. Staying one season in Louth, he then joined Bohs under Aaron Callaghan for the first of two spells at Dalymount.
His career was progressing nicely and a return to Dundalk followed at the end of the 2012 campaign. Stephen Kenny had just taken over and he made Ward a regular starter on the left side of midfield but a ruptured cruciate ligament suffered in the 2-1 win over St Patrick’s Athletic ended his season just before the break.
I felt I was developing as a player but then I did my cruciate. There was no one near me and I just turned and heard a snap. I thought it was nothing and walked into my scan a few days later.
“That set me back, then I didn’t get a sniff at Dundalk. We had a great side and obviously it was going to be hard to get back in. There was nothing wrong with my knee after that, it was just a top team and I found it hard to play.
“So I’ve experienced both sides of the game now with injuries and being out of teams, then playing regularly and well. It’s nice to be back on the right side of it these days.”
The Lilywhites clinched their first Premier Division title in 12 years under Kenny in 2014, but being called a champion didn’t sit quite right with Ward after his lack of involvement.
“It was a strange feeling,” he says. “I felt a part of it going in every day because it was a great bunch of lads and we had a good dressing room.
“That was a team that had never won the league before as most of the players hadn’t experienced that type of success. When won the title and lifted the trophy, I didn’t really feel part of it but that’s just me.
“But it was still nice to experience it with the lads and have the nights out to celebrate. The bonus wasn’t bad either because I went to Thailand with that!”
Dundalk also picked up the League Cup after beating Shamrock Rovers in the final, and Ward opted to give his medal to a dedicated supporter.
“I was in the stands a lot that year and there was fan named Cian,” he tells. “He was in a wheelchair and used to sit with us and burn the ear off you.
I don’t need a medal to show I’ve won the cup so I gave it to him and his ma was lovely about it. It would mean more to him than it would for me.”
Next up, Ward was offered the chance to switch to Sligo Rovers by his former Bohemians team-mate Owen Heary, who had just taken over at the Showgrounds.
However, Heary’s reign lasted just eight months and Joseph Ndo and Gavin Dykes were appointed on a temporary basis before the arrival of Micky Adams. The Bit O’Red narrowly avoided relegation and although it was a turbulent season, Ward was glad of the experience.
“That was my first time moving away from home,” he says. “The first day I moved to Sligo I said ‘oh my God, get me home’. It was literally a big field out the back with cows and all!
“That was a mad season. Three managers were in charge and we had a very good team so it was a disgrace that we did so bad in the league. You can blame managers all you want but at the end of the day we are the ones who go out on the pitch and we should never have been in that position.
“I did enjoy it and got to work with Joe Ndo, who is a legend. Owen Heary was a good manager, but it just didn’t work out and then Micky Adams came in. It was a bad year football-wise but it was a different experience that I enjoyed.”
Ahead of the 2016 season, Ward was brought to Derry City by Kenny Shiels. He played 19 times in the league across the midfield but never really made one position his own.
“If it didn’t work out for me, I’d never blame a manager,” he insists, before expanding on what makes his current manager special. “I always look at myself. At Derry last year, it was a bit up and down and I was playing on the wing.
“Kenny Shiels is a great manager and he gave me a lot of chances but I would put a lot of it down to myself. Keith understands that, the type of player I am, there’s going to be days where I go out and my passes, through-balls or flicks don’t come off.
“For creative players, it’s harder to be more consistent because you’re taking more chances. Some days, the balls come off and others they don’t. If I have an off-day, Keith will say ‘it didn’t happen for you, you’ll be in my team next week’.
“Other managers might leave me out and it’s hard because then when you get another chance you feel there’s so much pressure to go out and have a good game.
“Keith will put the arm around my shoulder. That, for me, is a great thing to have and it helps me a lot more.”
The style of man-management has certainly worked thus far and Ward is solely focused on tomorrow night’s trip to Donegal.
“I know it’s a cliché, but I’m just looking forward to taking each game as it comes. Once Bohs have a good season, I’ll be more than happy.”
But what would success be for Bohs?
“For me personally, I want to keep away from that relegation zone,” he replies. “With three teams going down, that’s 25% of the league losing out. It’s tough and if any side below us go on a run they can find themselves up the table.
“I know we’re going well in seventh and things are looking good, but I’m still cautious. It’s nice to be looking up the table but you’ve always got that in the back of your head.
“There are still a lot of games to go before the end of the season and teams could still do a bit of transfer business.
If we can win away tomorrow it puts a bit gap between ourselves and Finn Harps, but it’s scary how tight it is down there.”
After canvassing supporters for funds to help add new players, Long has strengthened his squad with the arrival of Stephen Donnelly from AUL club Usher Celtic, Dundalk pair Ciaran O’Connor (on loan) and Keith Dalton as well as teenager Dan Casey, who spent four years at Sunderland.
“To be fair to Keith, he has got some good players and we’ve made a few signings so we are looking a lot stronger but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to start doing better,” adds Ward.
“We need to keep working hard and doing what we’ve been doing.
“It’s only training but they’re young, hungry players coming in. I know I’m only 26 but I’m probably one of the older ones now.
“Dan looks a really strong centre-half. It’s the first time this year where the manager will have a few headaches this Friday. We’re looking very competitive and we’ve no real injuries apart from Detser [Derek Pender] our captain. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks and seeing how well we can do.”
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