ALAN REYNOLDS has warned Bohemians fans that there will be more bumps along the road.
Bohs seemed to have found their groove under a new manager with three wins in a row, all by a one-goal margin.
But they were brought crashing down to earth at Oriel Park on Friday night as Dundalk claimed a well-deserved first win of the season.
And, ahead of Friday’s clash with arch rivals Shamrock Rovers, Reynolds reckons there could be as many letdowns as triumphs for some time to come.
Reynolds said: “I’m very disappointed before you ask. I’m very disappointed with the first half.
“We didn’t compete. All the things we were doing, we didn’t do in the first half.
“They wanted it more than us, which is really disappointing. We’re nothing unless we have that.
“I think there is going to be a bit of ups and downs with this group from now until whenever it changes.
“That’s the way I see it. When we’re bad, we’re bad and when we’re good, we’re good. There is plenty to work on.
“We can’t get too carried away with three wins and it’s the same, we can’t get too low with this.”
But he added: “We were under pressure at times.
“And we could have been four down in the first half. We’d a couple of chances.
“Dayle Rooney was unlucky with one but I made three changes at half-time and that tells its own story.
“I just needed to try something because I couldn’t keep looking at what we were looking at. We went a bit more direct.”
Bohs won a penalty on the hour mark but James Akintunde’s effort was saved by George Shelvey.
And Reynolds sighed: “You score the peno and it’s a different game isn’t it? They killed the game after the penalty.
“But we were direct second half and asked questions of them. We were getting a little bit of joy from it but missing the penalty I think it just petered out.”
Akintunde took the spot-kick with captain and regular penalty-taker Jordan Flores off the pitch and the gaffer confirmed he was not the only player who had been under the weather.
He said: “Jordan played when he was sick. There was a bug in the camp. Some of them played and probably shouldn’t have. You can see it was a factor. It was a gamble that didn’t come off.”
KING MAKER
Meanwhile, new Dundalk boss Noel King claimed his team winning had little to do with him.
King let head of football operations Brian Gartland and first-team coach Liam Burns — who had been in caretaker charge since Stephen O’Donnell’s dismissal — call the shots.
King said: “The two lads were doing the training all week and the sessions were very good.
“There’s lads’ names I’m mixing up and, if I’m roaring and shouting, and it’s the wrong person, it doesn’t make sense.
“I just wanted to see as well how the lads operated on the bench.”
And he did not rule out continuing to take a back seat.
He said: “I have to see whatever would be best for the team and the best chance of getting a victory. It’s not about me.
“Why would you change it? But it doesn’t stop at this, it can’t stop at this.
“The performance was very good and we have to at the very least match it and then try to raise the standard again to bring Dundalk back to where we belong.
“It’s a big task because there are loads of good teams around the league.”