Robertson keeps his head in the sand as Rovers’ form nods towards relegation
POST match interviews with both Ollie Horgan and Dave Robertson following Saturday’s game at Finn Park certainly made for remarkable listening.
In one corner you have Horgan, often a pessimist who uses every after match conversation as an opportunity to down play anything positive his team produces.
He purposefully states at least in public, the negatives of every situation his club finds itself in.
In the other corner you have Robertson who is in charge of a team who are clearly heading the wrong way at pace but refuses to acknowledge it in front of cameras and recorders.
His insistence on using buzz words and cliches to put a brave face on things is becoming tiring and frustrating.
While Horgan is dampening expectations as much as he can knowing that his team will inevitably become embroiled in the war to keep away from the bottom three, Robertson keeps his head in the sand with his assertions that the tide will turn and with it change the course of an already sinking ship.
Horgan looks down knowing what to expect while Robertson is still deluding over improvement that looks less likely as the weeks go on.
A fourth defeat in six is relegation form.
Form not likely to change under current management. The win over Bray Wanderers the week previous served as a result that will in the long term, only delay the inevitable. Bray were poor, unorganised and looked for the most like a team with a terrible attitude problem with the second worse defensive record behind our own.
Without Kieran Sadlier’s stellar display, we would still be looking for our first win. No doubt.
Robertson is yet to taste success in a north west derby. Horgan had his number on each of the three occasions last season taking five points from Rovers in 2016.
Again, the Galway man knew Rovers’ limitations and weak points.
The pitch was slanted to Rovers’ left side particularly in the second half in an effort to exploit Liam Martin at left full.
The majority of set- pieces were bombed toward the penalty area in an effort to panic our jittery central two.
While dangerman Kieran Sadlier came in for some heavy challenges throughout.
Not pretty, but it was effective from Harps’ point of view and it was clear Horgan had again done his homework. Robertson declared that the defeat did not put his side back to square one and stated that every game “is a massive game”. Today, Rovers have lost four of those six “massive games”, conceding an average of over 2.5 goals per game and scoring just over once per outing. I said last week that we would need to score at least twice if not three times to beat Harps such is our lack of experience and stability at the back. The insistence on playing Martin at left back instead of an actual defender in the shape of the all to often ignored Gary Boylan doesn’t help in proving the doubters wrong. Again the squad’s sore lack of depth brought on by an extremely poor transfer window on the manager’s part lends toward this problem. Robertson argued that we are continuing to make advances in “areas where we’ve seen improvements”. Baffling, as there clearly has been no visible improvement from this group of players in 2017. We still look likely to concede every time the opposition gets within 20 yards of our goal. While in midfield, John Russell’s immense work rate isn’t going to be enough if the other men in the middle continue to shun responsibility. There is a hint of an idea there when we play the diamond with Craig Roddan and Chris Kenny playing behind the roaming Russell. But I don’t think either of the first two really know what their job is when Russell ( pictured) in deployed to the wing as he has been in recent weeks. Beside Raff, Jonah Ayunga was involved but again he was nowhere near psychical enough to deal with Harps’ Kilian Cantwell and Ciaran Coll. Ayunga’s confidence waned badly as the game wore on as he continuously pulled out of challenges and decided against putting his body on the line. Not what you want from your striker when you’re in a relegation battle. On the ‘ R’ word, the manager also insisted he “will not entertain anyone who talks about relegation”. Another marker of a man who refuses to acknowledge the misgivings around him. Half of the recovery process is to admit the problem, right? The situation at the Showgrounds is beyond worrying. Defeat in Galway on Friday is a real prospect. Defeat would leave Rovers a point adrift with Galway having a game extra to play. Defeat must herald change even this early on.