Rovers will play in Scottish Cup
SLIGO Rovers and Bray Wanderers will represent the Republic of Ireland in the 2017/ 18 Irn Bru Scottish Challenge Cup.
The news was confirmed at the launch of the 2017 SSE Airtricity League launch last Tuesday afternoon.
Rovers’ fifth place finish in 2016, and Bray’s sixth place finish have earned them the right to represent Ireland in the cup.
Rovers boss Dave Robertson is thrilled at the prospect of facing some of the best teams that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has to offer.
“I think it’s brilliant, it’s a great initiative. I think it will be interesting for the group.
“I think there’s still a lot of things that will have to be ironed out in terms of the times of the games, how that impacts on our league season, and on the other cup competitions that we play in here. I’m sure that will all be ironed out soon,” he said.
The Scottish Challenge Cup was last year expanded to 52 teams having initially composed of teams from the SPFL and the Scottish Football League.
Last year, four teams from the Highland League and the Lowland League were invited to compete in the Challenge Cup alongside the Under 20 teams of the 12 SPL teams.
Two teams from the Welsh Premier League and the NIFL Premiership were also invited.
Robertson feels that while the competition will be beneficial to his players, it will also be beneficial to the League of Ireland as a whole.
“The one thing that I always do is welcome any competitive fixtures like that which I think would be of any benefit to the players and of benefit to the club.
“To play in a competition like that will only be a good thing for us here at Sligo and also for the League of Ireland.
“That’d the most important thing. Because we finished fifth last year, ourselves and Bray will be representing the League of Ireland.
“We’ll have to make sure that when we got into that competition that we’re all fully aware of that.
“We’re not only playing for ourselves, we’re not only playing for the club but we’re also playing for the pride of the League of Ireland clubs.”
With the details of the competition yet to be finalised and discussed, no- one really knows what the competition could mean for the conclusion of Rovers’ season.
But, Robertson says he is looking forward to coming up against some of the top clubs from our neighbouring countries.
“I think this league is an excellent league and there’s nothing better than wanting to pit your wits against the Irish Premier Division, the Welsh league, the Scottish league. I think it’s going to be a really exciting competition.”