Players must stay together, says Robbo
SLIGO Rovers manager Dave Robertson has urged his players to stick together and keep working hard as they look to turn their season around following a difficult start.
Speaking after Friday night’s 1- 1 draw with St. Patrick’s Athletic at The Showgrounds, Robertson is confident that results will eventually pick up once conditions improve.
“The real message this week has been about making sure that the belief we have in ourselves and each other remains, the confidence, the positivity and the energy levels that we need to be competitive in the League of Ireland continue to be maintained and improve on,” he said.
“The quality of what we do will naturally improve when the weather, the pitches, etc improve. It’s just about staying together and that’s something we do well as a group,” he added.
Asked if he feels that the result relieves pressure slightly, the Rovers boss said: “The pressure, like what we said last week, the pressure comes from ourselves.
“What that does mean, from ourselves, everytime we play, we want to go out and win football matches. We have to make sure we go through the processes that we need to to do that and as long as we continue to do that we’ll pick up enough points to do that.”
In order to kick on after picking up their first point, Robertson says his side need to keep working hard.
“We just keep working hard and we need to keep putting points on the board and we continue to progress. It’s a 33 game season, we’ve got 30 left, there’s 90 points to play for. We’ll be remaining positive, we’ll be remaining hard working and the rest of it on the training ground and the rest will take care of itself.”
Although the season hasn’t quite kick- started the way Robertson would have liked, he feels that the targets they set for this season are still achievable.
“Like what we said to the players they have to believe in themselves and believe in each other. They don’t have to believe it, it’s a fact but the targets we set for ourselves are still achievable. What we need to do is, we’ve laid the building blocks and we’ll go game by game and we’ll get better and better.
“We have spoke this week about the conditions. The pitches at this moment in time are quite heavy and sluggish and I think ourselves and the same for St. Pats, because they’re a footballing side, I think results will start to pick up in the coming weeks when the conditions and the pitches get better.”
Robertson was thrilled with his side’s performance in the first- half against Dubliners St. Patrick’s Athletic.
Rovers took the lead after the half hour mark thanks to a stunning free- kick from Kieran Sadlier. “I’d probably say the first- half performance I thought was very very good. The second- half, obviously St. Pats had a right go at it and they needed to because of their situation being in the same position as us. At the end of it, it probably feels like two points dropped rather than a point gained. There is that element to it. What that does give us is a real foundation to build on.
“It’s a real good foundation and I think the energy levels and the competitiveness that we showed and the hunger and desire to win in the first half gives us a good foundation to build on.” Robertson praised the performance of John Russell, who certainly gave it his all on Friday night against his former club.
“John’s a warrior - he’ll run through brick walls for this football club and that’s one thing I really love about him. He wears his heart on his sleeve and you can’t ask for anything more.”
The former Peterborough boss added: “Every game is a huge game this season. There’s a little more of an element of panic this season because the obvious change in the league with three teams going down. I think that’s across the board with all teams, it’s not unique to anybody. Everyone has to continue working and continue believing.”
He confirmed that Gary Armstrong’s absence from the matchday squad is not due to injury.