Robertson’s search for a striker goes on
fixture with John Caulfield’s side.
The meeting with Dundalk will be fixed later.
Longford Town: Ryan Coulter, Conor Powell, Noel Haverty, Mark Hughes, Kealan Dillon ( Jamie Mulhall, 70), Don Cowan ( Lee Duffy, 87), Yann Mvita Nkelu, Kaleem Simon, Peter McGlynn ( David O’Sullivan, 67), Eddie Dsane, Rhys Gorman.
Subs: Paul Skinner, Philip Gannon, Tristan Noack Hofmann, Pat Flynn.
Sligo Rovers: Micheal Schlingermann, Tobi Adebayo- Rowling, Jimmy Keohane, Gavin Peers, Gary Boylan, Craig Roddan( c), John Russell, Liam Martin, Kieran Sadlier, Phil Roberts ( Daniel Kearns, 54), Raffaele Cretaro.
Subs: Ciaran Nugent, Mick Leahy, Gary Armstrong, Mikey Place, Chris Lyons, Jason Hunt.
Referee: Derek Tomney Sligo Rovers manager Dave Robertson’s search for a striker continues, as he says he looks to find someone of the “right quality” to join his squad.
Speaking after Saturday night’s 2- 2 draw with Longford Town at City Calling Stadium, Robertson said negotiations were ongoing with a number of clubs regarding a striker.
“It’s all going well, I am in negotiations with two clubs currently and I will hopefully have answers one way or the other in the next 24 hours. If it’s a no then we will move on but for me it’s about bringing in the right quality of player into the club,” he said.
“I don’t want to bring someone in that is just going to keep us the same. I want someone to come in and make an impact. We have moved up into sixth and if we are to bring in players we need to make sure they are of the highest possible quality and that’s what I am trying to do,” he added.
On Saturday night’s game, Robertson said losing the lead twice was a huge disappointment for him.
“We worked on the game plan, we knew that Longford would be fighting tooth and nail. They are fighting for their lives and they did that for 94 minutes.
“We had a plan to get crosses into the box, Raff has run unbelievably well, it’s a strength of his we felt we could take advantage of and he does. He gets across and it’s a fantastic header that puts us 1- 0 up.
“We then concede, a disappointing defensive error from a set- piece.
“We knew their threat from set- pieces, it was just a lack of concentration at the front post that should have been dealt with. We’ll move on.
“Phil Roberts practices his freekicks day in and day out religiously for 15 minutes at the end of training. So it was no surprise that we went 2- 1 when we got that free- kick on the edge of the area.
“I thought it could have been one or two more. Gary is a young lad learning so I’m not going to destroy him, he knows he’s made a mistake as he tried to clear it.
“To take the lead on two occasions, especially away from home, is my biggest disappointment coming away from this evening but we need to get ready for Derry on Friday.”
Following a disruptive few weeks, Rovers will now have a busy run of games for a period.
“We are going to have a run of games. We went 50 days with two games to now having seven in the next three weeks.
“We have to prepare ourselves for that. I thought tonight was a good game, two competitive teams who clearly wanted to take the three points. Credit to Longford for their battling display and their endeavour.
Robertson ensured that his players were sufficiently prepared for the game following two hard weeks of training.
“They’re a good honest group, they are a hard- working group. After we played St. Pat’s we had an extremely tough week. They then had the weekend off to recover from that and then we came in on Monday and turned our focus straight on to the game plan for this week. Attacking- wise it paid dividends we just need to cut out the defensive errors.”