Currently sitting in eighth, a home win last night would have put 11 points between themselves and ninth-placed Drogheda to all but secure safety for next season, but the Louth side left Dalymount Park with their first away victory in 360 days to cut the gap on Bohs to just five points courtesy of Frantz Pierrot’s first-half strike.
While Bohemians do still hold a game in hand on Kevin Doherty’s men coming into the final weeks of the season, Reynolds insists his side are fully aware of the work that lies ahead and bemoaned several missed chances as they fell to a 12th league defeat of the season – with Alex Greive missing a open goal from seven yards midway through the second half.
“Yes we are well aware of it,” said Reynolds when asked about the gap being cut to five points last night, with his Bohs side next in action away to rivals Shamrock Rovers on Monday night.
“I said that this was the biggest game for us this season, so we’ve work to do now and we’ll get back at it and look forward to Monday. We spoke about it in there, we’re disappointed and everyone is.
“Look, I think on another night you score a few but we gave them something to hang on to. They fought as hard as they could to hang on to it and they did. They spoiled the game and all the things that we knew they’d do so just need to be clinical.
“In the first 25 minutes I didn’t think we were good, Drogheda had the front men that were a handful. We need to deal better with the ball that went in (for Drogheda’s goal) but we settled down. I thought in the second half we just weren’t clinical. We created a lot of chances but we’re disappointed, we’ve got to score some of them chances.”
The League of Ireland review is here as Dan McDonnell and Seán O’Connor look back on a dramatic night of action at both ends of the table
Asked if not being ruthless enough in front of goal was becoming an issue for his side, Reynolds added: “whether it is or not, I suppose it’s plain to see that we need someone to score goals.
“But it is not through lack of effort, maybe just a break of a ball, but every team is looking for someone to score 15/20 goals a season.
“Yeah we will (address that in the off-season). We’ve a bit of work to do between now and then but yeah, I’m sure everyone is too.”
After picking up a huge victory, their first on the road in a little under a year, Drogheda boss Doherty hailed his side’s grit and determination to leave Phibsboro with three points in a massive boost to their hopes of avoiding relegation. They now sit four point clear of rock bottom Dundalk.
“We have been in good form for quite a while. It’s easy to be in good form when you can see your players will do anything for you on the pitch,” said Doherty, with the Louth side next in action at home to Galway United on Monday.
“They have done since I have come to the club, bodies on the line. I don’t like to keep going on about it, but some of my players were in work yesterday morning. To be able to come here and do what they did was unbelievable.
“Bohs have been in excellent form. I don’t think they played poorly, I think they were really good, so I’m sure they will bounce back. They have unbelievable players. They’ll be fine but we have to look after ourselves.
“We’re delighted. The performances were so good. The first half we were so good attacking-wise and defensively. We were very unlucky not to go 2-0 up when Frantz hit the post. Frantz was sensational tonight, last week and has been for a long time. We had to dig in in the second half and our goalkeeper had to make some saves, but I thought we were really, really good. I think we deserved it.
“We have to praise them, brilliant, delighted with a great win, but we have Galway on Monday who beat the league leaders (Shelbourne) last night. They will be coming into it fairly confident too, so we’ll have to be ready for it.”
