Anything less than a victory in Dalymount piles on the pressure
FINN Harps and Galway United at home - two games identified as must- win games mere weeks ago when us optimistic, perhaps blindly optimistic, folk looked ahead to the fixture list.
To not take a victory in either of those games is a disaster. We’re in a relegation dogfight, time is not on our side, we have got to start winning games.
One win takes you well up the table. It’s just getting that win that seems to be the issue.
Not only are we not scoring goals, but we’re not creating chances either - and that’s the issue. The lack of depth in attacking areas is obviously a concern, and there are few options on the bench each week, and certainly none that could potentially change a game.
Jonah Ayunga has ability, undoubtedly. The talent is certainly there. He showed what he is capable of when he scored after ten minutes on Saturday night, but we saw nothing else worth getting excited about.
Raff Cretaro, who puts in an unbelievable shift each week, should be coming to the end of his career but he works harder than anyone else every week. It’s almost not fair to Raff to be relying so heavily on him once again but that’s the way things are at the moment and you have to hope with the summer transfer window, and the new signings added to the squad, that Raff will be given a bit of respite in a couple of weeks.
We’re in a lot of trouble if we can’t start scoring goals soon. That’s obvious. We can’t afford to be waiting and waiting for things to pick up and thinking that it will come together eventually. We’re mid- way through June now, time is not on our side. The only thing giving myself, and many others, hope is that we have new additions to come into the squad on July 1st.
Gerard Lyttle has made it clear on numerous occasions that this squad needs more players. When asked on Saturday night if the squad is strong enough to survive relegation, he answered with “at this present moment I would like to add players” - that says it all really.
But for all the concern over our strength in attack, or lack of it, we have seen an improvement in defence since Gerard Lyttle has joined.
After a bit of a shaky start, Kyle Callan McFadden has really stepped up to the mark in recent weeks and has proved himself to be a very valuable member of the squad.
Having struck up a decent partnership with Michael Leahy, the pair have become quite solid and you feel as though they can be trusted there.
There seems to be a lot of criticism of Regan Donelon in recent weeks and I personally can’t see where it comes from. To me, Regan is a solid defender who rarely puts a foot wrong. But everyone sees something different at a game.
People are willing to give Gerard Lyttle time and his honesty in interviews after games means that fans are on side. The reality is this squad is sadly not good enough right now.
With new additions and hopefully a bit of confidence from somewhere then we can get out of this.
It’s become a familiar tale over the years where we have the management and players telling everyone to stick together, urging fans to show their support. This is no different, but in fairness, Rovers fans have been very much on side with Lyttle and are fully aware of the job he has on his hands.
We’ll say every game from now on is massive, and it is in fairness. But an away trip to Dalymount on Friday is huge and a win there would settle a few nerves for at least another while anyway. People won’t be so patient if results and games keep following this trend.
I don’t want to think of the alternative if we don’t start picking up results.