MAURICE NUGENT revealed he climbed out of his sick bed to leave Bohemians with a dose of the blues.
On only his third Premier Division start, Nugent got his first top-flight goal on Monday to move Galway United ahead of the Gypsies and into fourth on goal difference.
But the 25-year-old — normally a defender — revealed that he had not been feeling well in the build-up but kept schtum as he got the nod to start in midfield.
And the gamble paid off as Nugent squeezed a shot inside Kacper Chorazka at his near post to give the Tribesmen their first win at Dalymount Park in 13 years.
Nugent said: “I don’t really know what came into my head. I was running down the line and said I’d chop in and have a crack and I got the space.
“I could see the near post, he was leaving it a little bit open, he probably didn’t expect me to shoot, so I just had a crack and I was delighted when it went in, I saw the linesman’s flag go up and I ran off.
“I kind of knew it was in myself. I was waiting for it to go up, but I was kind of off by myself.
“And when I saw the linesman’s flag go up I started to celebrate.”
But the Ennis man had to come off shortly after Karl O’Sullivan’s sending-off in the 58th minute as John Caulfield’s side had to dig in and defend.
He said: “I had to come off, I was dying sick.
“I kind of had a cold all weekend. I came in and I was dizzy going out for the second half.
“I didn’t really say it to anyone to be honest, I kind of kept it to myself but I was just sneezing around the place. Hopefully I don’t pass it on.
“The lads were unbelievable to sit in and defend that lead.
“We’ve a very good togetherness about the group, we’re dogged, hard to beat and we pride ourselves on that so we were delighted to see it out.”
Nugent’s goal came after a couple of minutes of pressure when Bohs struggled to clear their lines.
And he said: “We’re good at that, pinning teams in when it comes to it, kind of ring the box and just make sure that it’s always going back in there because that’s where you score the goals.
“I guess that’s been our strength this year. We’ve always sat in and tried to be hard to beat but, when we get our chances, we’ve got the quality to take them. To come up and get three points is huge for us.
“We kind of let ourselves down when we played these in Terryland Park so we kind of had that in our head.”
But, although he admitted they were in a better position than they anticipated, he insisted last season’s First Division champions would not lose the run of themselves.
BRIGHT START
Asked what they could achieve, Nugent said: “Em, God knows, we’ll just keep trying to be hard to beat, keep nicking goals and see where that takes us.
“I don’t think we were expecting it but I don’t think it’s something to write home about at this stage of the season. We’ll see where we are in 20 games’ time.
“It’s very even and even ourselves and Waterford, the two sides that came up, are very competitive. Anyone can beat anyone.
“It’s brilliant to see to be honest, there’s a great competitiveness about the league and hopefully long may it continue.
“If you pick up four to six points on a Friday-Monday it’s a massive boost, if you pick up two or three results in a row you’ll jump up the table.
“I suppose for ourselves we’ll enjoy this and focus on Sligo on Friday.”