Players not meeting their targets, says Rovers boss

SLIGO Rovers manager Gerard Lyttle is under no illusions that something has got to change if his side is to eventually avoid relegation.

Rovers drew 0- 0 with Finn Harps on Friday night, in a game that was most certainly earmarked as a must win prior to the mid- season break.

A disillusioned Lyttle said: ! I’m feeling very frustrated. It was a game I targeted to win, to get three points. Fair play to Finn Harps, they were celebrating a draw. They’ve come away from home and had two wins and a draw which is decent for them. I was very frustrated. We didn’t show up. I was really excited before the game. We worked on a lot of things this week.

“Myself and Ryan Casey had them on the pitch, we had them working on a lot of attacking. We didn’t attack. We were playing out from the back and it was nice but we weren’t going anywhere. We didn’t find that forward pass, we didn’t work hard enough off the ball to get free, to create one v ones.”

When pressed on why his team didn’t attack enough tonight, Lyttle said he needs to see more from his attacking players.

“Good question. I just think, desire. It’s OK working defending and all the rest but you’ve got to work on the final third equally as hard to find space and pockets. You’re depending on your creative players to do that and to show up for you and give you that spark.

Rovers have had to rely on Raff Cretaro for goals largely, and Lyttle demands more from his attacking players.

He is of the opinion that if more players shared the passion of the Tubbercurry man, then Rovers would be in a much better position.

“They ( Harps) did a job on Sadlier and we spoke to Sads about it and he may get used to it because teams are going to come and man- mark him so he has to find a way, if he’s going to make it at the next level in terms of England or Scotland, or wherever he’s going, then he has to find a way to get free.

“The best players in the world get man- marked. We need more. Jonah as well, he’s a young lad, he’s learning the game. He needs to find a way of winning games or trying to influence games more often in wee flashes.

“I feel sorry for Raff because he’s up there on his own and he’s fighting for everything. He has that passion. If one or two others shared the same passion and desire as him then we would probably be in a better place.

“We have our own mini- league. Finn Harps we targeted, we wanted to win this game, we haven’t. You can say we haven’t lost it but I’m not concerned about that. I want teams coming here and I want us to be in the ascendancy all the time and I want other teams to be putting it to us. For me, Finn Harps looked like the team that was going to score rather than us,” the former Cliftonville boss added.

The lack of depth within the squad has been one of Rovers’ biggest issues this season.

It is quite clear that Rovers need a striker, and with a couple of injuries the squad is reduced significantly.

“You’re looking around the bench and usually you always have one or two that can come off the bench and do something different for you,” said Lyttle, alluding to his lack of options on the bench.

“We don’t have that. That’s not being disrespectful towards the players. We have defenders and midfielders in there and it’s more defensive. The balance of the group of players isn’t right.

“There’s four or five defensive midfielders and one or two attacking forwards and it just doesn’t make sense. We’ve asked Chris Kenny, who is a defensive midfielder to go up centre forward. That’s the reality, that’s where we are.”

He accepts that if Rovers had beaten Finn Harps, the mid- season break would be arriving at a bad time.

But the failure to beat Harps means that Lyttle feels the break is arriving at a suitable time for his players.

“My job here is to come in and try and change that and get more players in and try and get the best out of our players. I thought we had turned a corner, you’re going to Bray and you’re getting a point there in a difficult place and you’re doing well against other teams. We need to start winning games,” he said.

Not one to shy away from criticising his own players, Lyttle admits that they are not meeting their targets at this present time.

“I was thinking before the game that if we win tonight the break comes at a bad time because it will upset our momentum, I think maybe now it’s a good time.

“And hopefully, me personally as a player if I was going away for a week and having a good think of what I need to do to help Sligo Rovers to get out of the situation we’re in.

“I hope players are going away thinking about their game. At the end of the day if you’re in a job and you’re not meeting your targets then something has to give.

“At this present time our players aren’t meeting their targets and that’s the bottom line. If you’re not reaching your targets then something has to be done.”

Players’ fitness has been the subject of much criticism this season, and Lyttle has previously said that he has had to work on fitness.

While he feels that his players’ fitness has improved since his arrival, there is still work to do.

“There’s no doubt in terms of fitness and sharpness and stuff like that. Maybe it’s just me but I thought we looked a wee bit sloppy tonight.

“I thought we looked lethargic in certain areas of the pitch. I demand the boys for 93 minutes to be up and down and moving about and if they’re not capable of doing that they’re not going to play.

“That’s where we are. The fitness levels has got better but still way off in terms of where I want it to be. I can’t wave a magic wand in four or five weeks.

“It’s hard, obviously in May they had five games so it was difficult to fit in the training we want to do and the intensity of training because you’re trying to recover for the next game.

“We’ll get there. I’m determined, hopeful and confident we will turn things around.”