Lyttle encouraged by first outing
GER Lyttle says he sees encouraging signs in how his new signings are fitting in so early in their Sligo Rovers careers. The Bit O’Red manager included three of his winter arrivals in last weekend’s 5-4 win over Dutch side RKSV Leonidas, namely Caolan McAleer and Adam Wixted who made their first starts for Rovers. While David Cawley bridged a gap of over two years since his last game for Rovers following spells with St Pat’s and Galway.
Rovers raced into a 4-1 lead at the break on Saturday but were pegged back to four goals a piece before Greg Moorhouse’s late winner. Speaking to the Sligo Champion after Saturday’s win, Lyttle said he was impressed with how both McAleer and Wixted applied themselves.
He also acknowledged that his decision to introduce all six substitutes at the break played a part in his team’s second half display.
Rovers had only arrived in Rotterdam the morning of the game, so Lyttle was quick to praise his squad’s effort given both the travel schedule and the fact Saturday’s game took place just 24 hours after the team’s first meetup of the year.
He said: “I was really pleased with the boys given that we’ve only had one training session. I thought we were very good in the first half. It was great to see the new boys coming in and fitting in right away. It’s hard for players when they’re just getting going with a new team.
“I thought we missed that in our game last year where we didn’t have players who could travel with the ball, take on people, shoot from distance and create from out wide and Caolan and Adam give us that.
“It’s always hard in games like this when you make so many changes and sometimes it back-fires and heads can drift a wee bit but overall I’m pleased with our attitude particularly given the amount of travelling.”
Rovers returned to training yesterday (Monday) morning ahead of their next friendly against Linfield in Belfast in six days time. Lyttle says a trip to face the Irish League outfit will give his players the appropriate work-out.
“It’s what we want”, he explains. “We want and need to be tested and have tough games in pre-season.
“We don’t want to be false so we need to play teams like Linfield who are in the middle of their season. They have a big squad and we’re going to a big stadium with an excellent surface so it will be a good test for our boys.”
Lyttle included three trialists on Saturday including a Scottish striker, Belgian midfielder and French winger.
He gave no indication on whether any of the trio will travel north next Monday but said he hopes to add to the squad in the coming days.
A centre forward, formerly on Liverpool’s books was reported to be close to signing at the weekend.
While Rovers are also understood to have been close to agreeing a deal with centre half Shane McEleney before the former Derry and Pat’s man opted to sign on at Irish Championship One side Larne.
“We have to add soon”, Lyttle admitted. “But we’ll continue to work hard on that side and hopefully in the next week or two we’ll see one or two new faces added. We know we still need to strengthen in certain areas.
“One of those areas is obviously up front and we only have one recognised striker in Greg (Moorhouse).
“We’re looking to add at least one more to add competition”, he said.