Raff happy to play

LOOKING ahead to an unprecedented eighteenth season in the League of Ireland, Raffaele Cretaro has seen it all.

Cup final shoot- outs, league titles delivered in the most dramatic fashion, Champions League football, relegation battles and the slog of the First Division are all features of the evergreen 35- year- old’s career. The Tubbercurry man is part of the Sligo Rovers squad preparing for Friday’s SSE Airtricity League Premier Division opener against Limerick, his sixteenth season with the Bit O’Red.

Cretaro started Sunday’s 2- 2 draw with Athlone Town from the bench. A game which saw John Mahon and Jack Keaney, two stars of last year’s U17 side play a full 90 minutes each.

The latter was two months short of his first birthday when Cretaro made his first senior appearance for Rovers in September 2000 against