Rovers gave us little to write home about in a drab affair with Harps

SOMETIMES so much happens in a game of football, it can be hard to include it all in a 500 word match report.

Saturday’s drab and scoreless north west derby was the polar opposite. In fact the only bit of entertainment to be had in the press box at the Showgrounds was how many different words you could use to describe the drab fare in front of you.

The only real positive of the evening was the wholly appropriate honesty of Gerard Lyttle’s post match response.

To hear him give such a genuine reaction to what he saw was refreshing. Like supporters, he had been expecting an entertaining affair with all the trimmings of a relegation six pointer you would expect.

Supporters weren’t expecting world- class football but we did at the very least want to have something to talk about on the way home.

You could tell by his words that he had prepared the team to perform in a certain way and to particular standards. What he got turned out to be abysmal.

The first twenty minutes held some sort of promise of better things to come in terms of a contest.

There were hints of wanting to play, clues of energy from either team.

Harps zipped the ball around quite well while Rovers created a number of counter- attacks without anything ever coming of them. The lack of conviction in either final third was a complete let down.

A home game against a relegation rival is a mustwin but I’m not sure that message resounded through the whole starting eleven.

It seemed it like a corner was turned the previous week against Bray Wanderers when spirit and grit played an extensive part in taking a point.

There was a determination and work rate that night from each player that just wasn’t present against Harps.

Ollie Horgan’s knew when and where to break, when to sit in and when to hit the ground and slow play down. Although they probably didn’t need to be. That was a huge result for them.

It’s in those sort of games against the weaker sides that you expect your ‘ big’ players to come to the fore.

Someone like Kieran Sadlier is above that sort of tussle but didn’t show it.

He harbours ambitions of playing at a higher level quite soon and rightly so. The guy’s a massive talent who is standing head and shoulder above anyone else in that team.

Maybe he hasn’t been coached in the right way in the previous 18 months but Lyttle was spot on with his comments about Sadlier needing to learn to be more evasive when he knows he’s going to be targeted.

It doesn’t help when he’s pulled inside, away from his more dangerous area out wide. But every team in the league does their best to make him a marked man.

Daryl Horgan made it over to Preston and impressed instantly because of his ability to consistently outwit full backs and his capacity to cut inside and devastate from any position.

It sounds spoiled to say that of our top scorer given someone like Kieran going to be the difference between survival and relegation.

But the gulf between even League One and League of Ireland is one only a handful of players in every generation can bridge. Sadlier has it in him no doubt, but needs to make even more games his own.

Sadlier wasn’t the only one. John Russell struggled against Harps’ middle three and when space was provided, Jonah Ayunga got the timing of his runs horribly wrong.

I’ve said it before and I still believe there’s a player in Ayunga but as the weeks wear on it looks as if his best days won’t be in Sligo.

It was also interesting that Ger is so vocal about the need to bring in players. Our squad is limited, that’s obvious.

But watching last Saturday makes you wonder do the players realise that the volunteers at the club are busting a gut to raise funds because the current team can’t be relied on.

That cash will go towards replacing a lot of them. We saw endeavour and a willingness to graft in Wicklow and Dublin recently. Why not against one of our local rivals?