Keith Long paid tribute to his Bohs team after their dramatic late FAI Cup second round victory over Shamrock Rovers at Dalymount Park this afternoon.
The Gypsies grabbed a late winner through Andy Lyons' 86th minute strike to clinch a 2-1 victory.
Just minutes earlier, his team-mate Georgie Kelly was red carded following an incident with Ronan Finn that saw the Rovers midfielder also dismissed on a second yellow card.
Ali Coote had given Bohs the lead with a spectacular 25-yard effort in the 55th minute, before Roberto Lopes had scored from close range to level it up for the Hoops in the 72nd minute.
"It had a bit of everything," said Long.
"It's a derby, there's two proud clubs with a big history and tradition, both sets of players fully committed and that's what you expect. We're just delighted that we go through to the next round.
"I thought it was a very stop-start affair in the first half, a typical derby, we didn't really play as well as we would have liked to.
"But then in the second half we played a little bit more on the front foot and with more purpose, played with some good energy, Alistair (Ali Coote) gets an absolutely brilliant goal from the free-kick, shifts the ball and he's shown this season that he's got a good strike and is a very technical player.
"Then we conceded a very sloppy goal, second phase at a set-play where Rovers throw a lot of bodies forward and a lot of balls into the box, and we didn't defend that second phase for their goal.
"But the character of the group is fantastic to get a winner, I don't think Andy Lyons could have hit a better shot off his left foot.
"He drove forward, drove into space and just let go from the edge of the box and I don't think it gave Alan Mannus any chance.
"We're into the next round of the Cup and it's a good feeling. We've obviously had a fortnight off, more or less, and Rovers came into the game on the back of going out of Europe on Thursday so it is a difficult turnaround, we've been through that this year already and it can be very difficult to try and back that up with such a quick turnaround.
"We felt that we had the edge in terms of freshness, for sure, I'm stating the obvious there but you've got to give credit to Rovers because they never gave in and came back at us and obviously equalised.
"But for us to get the winner late in the game the way we did, I think we deserved it."
Quizzed on the red card for Kelly, who has scored 16 goals in all competitions in his debut season for Bohs and is the league's top marksman, Long commented: "Well, I think Georgie was taken out in the build-up off the ball by the Rovers defender and there was a coming together in the box, and yeah, the referee deems it a red card.
"I haven't fully see the incident back yet and there's a lot of bodies in the way, the referee, the linesman on this side has a good view of it so we can only hope that...it's disappointing for Georgie to see red in the manner that he did, unfortunately.
"I don't think the incident happens if the ball goes into the net instead of bashing against the crossbar.
"We lost Georgie but they lost Ronan Finn, so it was 10 v 10 and we came out on top."
Bohs haven't won the FAI Cup in 13 years and are now two wins away from another special date at the Aviva Stadium, following their Euro exploits there this summer.
"Yeah, lots to do so we can only look after today, we're into the next round and let's see what the draw brings," said Long.
"The players have enjoyed it and it was great for the supporters, they've backed the team from the off today, they're a partizan, loyal crowd that I think can identify and relate to the team, they can see the effort that the boys put in but also the quality that we have, in the Aviva in some of the games, we played some good stuff.
"We're an exciting team to watch and we're glad that we sent the supporters home happy today."
Follow updates below or sign up to our sports newsletter here for the latest headlines to your inbox.
