KACPER CHORAZKA is determined to remain in Pole position at Bohemians — despite striking up a friendship with James Talbot.
Chorazka was signed from Cypriot club ASIL Lysi before the start of the season after Talbot took time out to deal with mental-health challenges.
The Finglas man returned to matchday squads five weeks ago but has had to be content with a place on the bench.
And although Chorazka says the pair are working well together he will continue to dive to survive as No 1 at Bohs, who are chasing a third win on the bounce against Drogheda United tonight.
Chorazka said: “It’s like Formula One. You are team-mates but you want to be the first one.
“He’s a great keeper, an amazing person to be honest. He’s helpful, he gives advice to everybody. He’s a great lad.”
Talbot, 26, firmly established himself as a fan favourite during his previous five seasons with the club, earning call-ups to the Ireland squad from both Mick McCarthy and Stephen Kenny.
But Chorazka, 25, has won supporters over with his consistent performances and the former Polish underage international feeds off playing in front of big crowds.
He came through the ranks at hometown club Wisla Krakow but did not break through to the first team, gaining experience in the lower leagues with Hutnik Krakow and Zaglebie Sosnowiec, before a move to Omonia Nicosia in January 2021.
They won the Cypriot League and Cup and reached the group stages of the Conference League during his time there but he played second fiddle for 18 months before dropping to the second tier to line out for Ermis Aradippou and then ASIL Lysi.
And it was a world apart from what he has experienced since joining Bohs, after Declan Devine had watched him in the flesh.
Chorazka said: “It is like a rollercoaster still because I have in my memory what happened in Cyprus where I was three months ago.
“I was playing with 200 fans in the stadium. It’s just a different culture, watching football. It’s different.
“When I spoke with Declan when he went to Cyprus to watch my game I talked to him about it.
“If you’re playing in Dalymount with 4,000 or 5,000 fans it’s easy to get extra motivation and you just go out on the pitch and play.
“I’m enjoying every single moment.
“With zero fans you just need to be well prepared. I think it’s even harder.”
It is not the only difference between the two leagues.
He said: “The first thing that came to my mind is the quality of the players, like individual, it’s much better in Cyprus, because we have big, big players, big names, but the intensity is different.
“Maybe it’s because of the weather because there you have 4OC and even the pitch, the grass, is different but, honestly, I prefer these conditions, with the wind, 10C outside, I prefer this.”
That preference was put to the test on Monday when Bohs survived a difficult first half playing into the wind to take all three points against Dundalk.
He said: “Because of the wind, we had to change our targets for the first half, but in the second half we played the way we wanted.
“We made six changes compared to Friday’s game.
“The idea of the coaches was to bring in fresh players for the second half, to make the change in the game, and I think we did it.
“You could see we were better with the ball, everything was good after that, we were fresher.”