Bohemians manager Keith Long accepts that his young Bohs team may be losing their surprise factor.
Long's Gypsies recruited well in the winter by snapping up fresh-faced Irish lads returning home from England, and Danny Mandroiu, James Talbot, Conor Levingston and Luke Wade-Slater have all turned heads this season.
Talbot has been a revelation in goal while Mandroiu is the creative spark out the pitch.
But the playmaker has also received close attention from Cork City’s Conor McCormack and Dundalk’s Chris Shields in their last two games.
Both of those ended in defeat and those man-marking roles are a sign that rival teams are finally figuring out the Gypsies new faces.
Bohs boss Long said: “I’d have no doubt Chris watched the game the last day, how effective Danny was up in Oriel.
“He would have studied the bits during the week and read some of Danny’s touches and where he wants to manipulate the ball.
“So that’s a big learning curve for Danny to try find that little bit of space with a little bit of magic, that you’re not too predictable, that you try mix it up.
“Chris is a very experienced player and Danny is a young boy. Hopefully he can learn from Friday because that’s the highest level here.
“Danny has aspirations to play at a higher level somewhere else, but you need to get to the level here first.”
Long added: “We have to be patient with the boys because they’re very young - we’re one of the youngest teams in the division.
“They’ve done so well for us so we can’t be hyper-critical. We have to be patient with them and work with them, because they’ve given us everything.
“We’ve players who are going to have moments. There’ll be games where it doesn’t quite work for them and we’ve got to be very patient.”
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