Declan Devine hails 'sensational' table-toppers Bohemians

Declan Devine was full of praise for the way Bohemians got the better of St Patrick's Athletic, saying that it was "sensational", while also singling out 17-year-old James McManus after his shift in the Gypsies engine room.

The 2-0 win sees Bohs climb to the top of the SSE Airtricity Premier Division standings, courtesy of Jonathan Afolabi and Dean Williams finding the net.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport after the Richmond Park encounter, Devine made light of his side's lofty early position.

"The table is not important at the moment; it's nice but it's not important," he said

"It was important for us to come to difficult venue on the back of last week [away defeat to Shelbourne] and try and get the three points."

Honing in on the performance, the former Derry boss added: "I thought our play at times was sensational and we looked very strong defensively. Our goalkeeper made an enormous save for us to get the points when the score was 1-0.

"Overall, I felt we were in control for periods because I knew we would have to weather storms. I think our ability to break lines, counter-attack and then play a possession-based game was very pleasing."

During the close season, Bohs made a lot of signings, with Devine keen to stress that squad depth is important.

"The squad is everything. We have people like Kris Twardek that hasn't played many minutes; John O'Sullivan has nearly 300 games under his belt in England and hasn't played any minutes.

"We have a couple of boys in Jay Benn and Drew Baker, really good players that haven't had any time yet. Dean Williams proved tonight when he gets a run he can be effective. We didn't take a chance with our captain [Keith Buckley] tonight, he's on the bench with a dead leg. We trust everybody and long may that