‘ Didn’t do basics well enough’

SLIGO Rovers manager Dave Robertson criticised his side’s ‘ individual errors’ which lead to the Bit o’Red suffering an annihilation at the hands of newly promoted Limerick on Friday evening at Market’s Field.

Rovers fell behind after just three minutes, and were trailing 3- 0 at half- time. Limerick piled further misery on the visitors as they added two further goals, with Matty Stevens’ 60th minute goal making little difference.

“I felt that we didn’t have the energy levels that we should have had. We didn’t have enough about us in terms of our intensity. We didn’t do the basics well enough this evening. There was individual errors for the goals that we’ve discussed and will be going through on Monday. We need to put that right and focus at the end of the day,” he said afterwards.

“Disappointing is the best way to describe it. We’ve had a look back at certain things. There was a couple of key things in the game, be under no illusions I’m not making any excuses for the team. There’s another 48 hours of football, there’s 32 games left between now and the end of the season. Yes it’s disappointing because it’s the opening day but there’s 32 more games to go. What we need to do is make sure the players are ready and the players are prepared for Dundalk,” he added. Robertson couldn’t put his finger on the reason for the lack on intensity, but he said he saw some positives in the second- half.

“I don’t know ( there was a lack on intensity). It’s something that I’ve spoken to the players about. We’ll look a bit deeper into it to make sure that it is right for the game next week and beyond. There was that area. We played how we played in the first- half and I changed the formation with two changes to make sure that we had more bodies in certain areas to be able to go and press and go after them. I felt we had more of an efficiency about our play in the second half. Matty Stevens gave us a real threat in behind and early on in the second half Craig Roddan play a ball in behind, he goes and presses, he wins the ball back and puts in a great ball barring a great save by Freddy Hall to be fair Raff gets one back. Matty himself works hard, presses, we turn the ball over the second line of defence. Sads gets his shot away, keeper makes a great save but Matty is there instinctively to score. Just those little bits of what I would call efficient play and we probably need to be a bit more German sometimes. It doesn’t have to be all flair and overplaying, it’s about breaking them down and really penetrating. There was that in terms of our attacking play.”

The Rovers boss was adamant that his side would need a good start to the 2017 season, particularly when they struggled so much at the beginning of last year. But, he is adamant that the Limerick defeat does not disrupt his plans.

“No cause it’s only one game. When we looked at it last season, any game you don’t take points from is a blow but you have to be realistic. As long as it happens in isolation it’s fine. If it happens and turns into a run then that’s completely different. We need to act on that and players need to respond in the right way which I’m sure they will. And make sure that they’re ready.” He was pleased with pre- season and remained defiant that their preparations were adequate in the lead up to the season’s start: “No there was nothing different we could have done in pre- season. It was individual errors and a lack of intensity. For me we need to make sure we get our mindset ready for next week. No- one is ever going to win the league on the first night but you would like to get a good start.

Now, he wants a response from his players as they prepare to host champions Dundalk on Saturday evening. “We got a good response there when we went down there last year to Oriel Park, not that we needed a response at the time. They beat us 1- 0 on two occasions and we beat them 3- 0 at their place.

“They’re a very strong side, everyone knows that.

“They had a good result this evening. It’s The Showgrounds. Dundalk were the last team to beat us there, we only lost two games there last year.”