Bit O’Red boss still demands more despite unbeaten run
SLIGO Rovers manager Liam Buckley stressed that his side must improve despite coming away from Bishopsgate at the top of the SSE Airtricity League table.
Sligo Rovers’ 1-0 win over Longford Town meant they maintained their unbeaten start to the season, ahead of Saturday’s clash with Shamrock Rovers at The Showgrounds.
Garry Buckley’s goal was the difference between the sides in what was a scrappy encounter featuring very little in the way of free-flowing football.
“From a result point of view, great, from a performance point of view, middle of the road,” Liam Buckley said after the game.
“I’m delighted with the result, we obviously just spoke about picking up three points bearing in mind Longford’s start, they’ve beaten Derry 2-0 and they’ve drawn with Bohs last weekend so it’s important that we got the win here, keep ourselves up at the top end of the table.”
The performance, however, was the source of some frustration for the Dubliner, who says the playing surface was not conducive to the passing style he would like to see from his charges.
“The pitch didn’t help, I’ll be straight, for both teams,” he explained.
“You’re trying to pass it and link it in and all that sort of stuff, it was taking some horrendous bounces. Not that that’s an excuse but maybe a reason why the game went the way it went.
“We had to change our tack a little bit in relation to trying to get into people’s feet because especially when the opposition is pressing you and the pitches aren’t good, you’re bound to make a mistake and we don’t want to throw up stupid chances so we changed that around a little bit. I thought we competed really well and I’m just delighted that we got a result.”
The Bit O’Red were made to sweat late on, with Longford Town pressing hard for an equaliser. Buckley, though, believes
his side were the better team.
“They did [push hard] in fairness, the last 20 minutes they all pushed on and banged it long. When you’re doing that you have to pick up second balls, that said I think if anyone was marginally going to win it I think it was going to be us.”
Adamant that Rovers need to improve to continue their decent run of results, Buckley argues that there are a number of areas that need addressing.
“In general, everywhere,” he answered when asked where they needed to
improve.
“From playing out from the back through the middle, our patterns of play, they don’t come into play with games like this this evening, you couldn’t develop them because it only takes on bad pass and when you’re being pressed high up like Longford were doing you’re only one mistake away from losing the match one nil so we’re better off playing the way it was, get one or two chances and thankfully Garry scored and we got a win.
“We haven’t started too badly. Obviously our draw against Dundalk, we were terribly unfortunate bearing in mind Mark Byrne’s disallowed goal that night in the 88th minute and obviously going down to Waterford and picking up three points there, we’ve picked up three points here away from home again.
“We’ve got a home game next weekend against Shamrock Rovers and that will be another interesting game for us and give us a little bit of an eye on where we are because we’ll need to perform better when we’re playing them.”
The challenge of Shamrock Rovers is significant, with last year’s league champions overcoming Dundalk in Tallaght last Friday, shortly after the game at Bishopsgate.
Always a big game for both clubs, Buckley says it is an encounter to relish.
“We’ll look forward to it, we’ve had some good games against them in the last few years.
“They have their style, obviously they’ve missed a few players that have travelled abroad or whatever, including Greg Bolger who has travelled up to us. It’ll be an interesting game, they’ve an important game against Dundalk, we’ll look at that and weigh it up looking at next weekend.
Last weekend’s game also saw Ryan De Vries get some match time – and Buckley says he will continue to work on his fitness in the coming weeks. Lewis Banks, meanwhile, was not part of the matchday squad on Friday due to injury.
“We’re just trying to get Ryan up to speed fitness wise because he obviously came in late from a pre-season point of view where his wife had a baby in New Zealand so we’re working on that but Ryan will come good in the next few weeks please God.”
It’s understood that Rovers were due to play Finn Harps yesterday (Monday) in a friendly organised to give players some game time who have so far struggled to do so.
The Shamrock Rovers game will give us a bit of an eye on where we are because we’ll need to perform better when we’re playing them.
Rovers CEO wins car in Finn Harps draw
THERE was more good news for Sligo Rovers, as it was announced on Sunday evening that the club’s CEO, Colin Feehily, was one of the big winners in Finn Harps’ big prize draw.
Feehily was the winner of the second prize, which saw him win a new Dacia Sandero Stepway.
Hordes of Rovers fans bought tickets for the draw in order to support the Donegal neighbours who were also generous in supporting the Bit O’Red’s GoFundMe fundraiser during 2020.