OF THE NET! Paul O’HEHIR

Dundalk — on penalties — as the catalyst for what has happened since. Without developing that hunger for trophies, Rovers wouldn’t be on a quest for an historic five in-a-row. “When you get over the line of winning something it gives you that belief,” said Burke. “We were chasing a great team in Dundalk at that time. “Going into that game at Dalymount, we knew we had lost a few games, so it was big going there.

“And then to win it, that’s what stands out in my mind in terms of how big of a win that was in BohsRovers games.” Bradley was asked the same question yesterday, but it’s safe to say he was less certain than Burke as to what standout memories he has from this fixture.

The Rovers boss laughed and admitted that games just blur into one when you’re bouncing so quickly from one to the next.

Bradley said: “I was at a quiz there at the start of the year with all the fans, the players were there too, and there were a lot of Rovers questions.

“I was probably the worst one answering them, and they were all under my term and I got every one of them wrong!

Worried

“I said to Glenn (Cronin) afterwards ‘I’m getting a bit worried here, about my memory’. Thankfully he said he was the same and Stephen McPhail was the same.

“When you’re in it it’s just ‘review, and next game’. When I come out of it, that will be the time to look back and think ‘That was a good game to be involved in’ but right now, no.”

But Burke wants to make some new memories tonight, knowing the game will be on a knife edge in front of a record-breaking crowd for this century.

The Hoops are up and running for the season after a first win of the season last time out in

Galway, and Bohs have

Alan Reynolds at the helm for his first game as manager.

Burke said: “I know what it means to us as players and what it means to the fans too. It’s the bragging right of Dublin and you want to go into the game and win it.

“There’s that rivalry between us and the Wardy one, we obviously wouldn’t have liked that but then obviously Greener does it with the Cup win.

Return

“But they are things you do on the banter side of it when you win games. It’s a big game for everyone that you really want to win.”

Meanwhile, Neil Farrugia could return for Rovers in the next three weeks.

The champions feared the powerful winger could be sidelined for three or four months when he dislocated his