Drogheda United loanee Josh Thomas reveals he snubbed Bohemians before coming off bench to stun them with winner

The Irish Sun

2 days ago

JOSH THOMAS revealed how he turned down the chance to join Bohemians after sinking them with a late winner.
In his first league appearance after a five-month lay-off with a leg injury, Thomas came off the bench at Dalymount Park to earn all
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Josh Thomas of Drogheda United celebrates his winner against Bohemians on Friday
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The Swansea City loan star turned down a move to Bohs earlier this year
The striker's spell on loan from
And he admitted a chat with Doherty helped to convince him to link up with Drogheda rather than
Thomas said: 'It's just when I spoke to Kev. I think this style of play really suits me, the counter-attacking, so I think that's why I'm here.
'I'm buzzing. I've been out for a while now. It's a tough place to come so it was good to get the three points. The boys did most of the work, I just topped it off.
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'That's what a striker dreams of, just to get one chance in a game.'
Thomas, 22, suffered a serious quad tear in February and had to abandon a planned comeback the following month.
The Welshman said: 'I didn't think it was going to be as long as it was. And then I tried to come back against Cork away and it just completely went again.
'We took extra precaution, went home and did my rehab back at Swansea and we took extra care and, yeah, I'm back now.'
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Thomas got away from Rob Cornwall and Niall Morahan to finish after being played through by Conor Keeley.
The match-winner said: 'I think I back myself against any defender, to be honest, especially when I'm in that position. It's what I've been doing since I was ten years old.'
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He had already irked Cornwall with a couple of late challenges.
And Thomas shrugged: 'That's just the way I go into the game. Everyone says about the first pass, mine's always just getting stuck in, straight away.'
The ex-Wales Under-21 international - who has Football League experience from loan spells with Bromley and Port Vale - reckoned Drogs' training camp in Spain, organised after they were excluded from the Conference League, was a perfect tonic.
He said: 'For morale it was very good. We trained really hard all week.
'I think it was harder than we all expected it to be.
'It wasn't a holiday like everyone was saying but we had a good night towards the end of the week and came back with all the morale really high.
'I think when something gets taken away from you that's not your fault, it gives you more momentum to show people why we were here in the first place.
"We can go head-to-head with anyone in the league when we're on it.'
And Doherty reckons having players such as Thomas to bring on underlines how Drogheda have progressed from previous years.
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He said: 'I've been crying out for this for a long time, to have subs who can make an impact, not just subs you make when you're on the floor, which has been the case for most of the time.
'But having him and Warren Davis to come on is really good. The thing about Josh and him is that they're great finishers.
'For the goal, it's not just the pace, it's the timing of the run, it's using their body to get in the right position. Obviously it's the pass from Conor as well.
'We can run all day and we've seen in the first half, Dare Kareem and Thomas Oluwa worked Bohs.
'If they don't do that work in the first half, maybe that goal doesn't happen in the second half.
'That was part of the plan. It's great when it works.'