Outstanding win for Rovers, but it must be built on in next games

THE good, the bad and the ugly - all in the space of a week for Sligo Rovers, although it was more like the ugly, the ok and the excellent.

We needed a reaction after the performance in Longford. Tuesday night’s draw against Bray Wanderers, although a decent performance, wasn’t quite the reaction we had all hoped for.

That game was there for the taking, we didn’t take it. The effort was there, Rovers just couldn’t score goals. But to his credit, Gerard Lyttle was adamant afterwards that he saw enough to be positive going to Cork.

Anyone who has seen Sligo Rovers play in Turners Cross in recent years will tell you that we have played extremely well there. For whatever reason, that ground seems to bring out the best in us.

Cork offered very little by means of attacking threats. They were poor. Without Seani Maguire they have nothing up front. But their night was made so difficult by an outstanding and gritty performance from Sligo Rovers.

Since the arrival of Gerard Lyttle, Rovers have been very strong defensively. That’s one of the major improvements we have seen and Friday night was further evidence of that.

Kyle Callan- McFadden has proved to be a real leader on that field, while Seamus Sharkey has been brilliant since coming into the starting eleven. Mick Leahy has been hard done by somewhat being dropped to the bench. Tobi Adebayo- Rowling is regaining his top form, and one of the stand- out performances for me from Friday night was Regan Donelon.

Regan, unfairly I feel, has come in for a lot of criticism from Rovers fans this year. Regan has been at the club for a long time, we should all know what he is capable of.

He has been covered well in recent games and has been given an opportunity to go forward. His crosses have been good, and that tackle on Karl Sheppard around the 70 minute mark was timed to perfection.

Another player who deserves a mention is Craig Roddan. Roddan has got a lot of stick from Rovers fans, including myself. He clearly wasn’t part of Gerard Lyttle’s plans when he arrived, but the last week he has shown why he should be there, and reminded us all of what he can do, like his early season form last year.

Craig’s bravery and his hardness, for want of a better word, is one of the reasons he was such a big part of Dave Robertson’s plans. We hadn’t seen that Craig all year, but in the last week he has shown exactly what he can do. If we are to survive, I would expect Craig to be a big part of it all.

With so many of the referee’s decisions going against them on Friday night, you’d nearly have expected Rovers to feel sorry for themselves and end up losing the game.

Credit to them all, to still keep going and win the game despite all the shocking decisions that went against them, is a tremendous achievement. From the lack of a penalty, the Sheppard red card that should have been, Craig Roddan’s red card, Sharkey’s yellow card, and various questionable decisions, Ray Matthews has a lot to answer for.

But thankfully it didn’t cost Rovers the game. Lyttle is blue in the face lamenting poor refereeing decisions and while he would have been right to rant and rant on Friday night, he could see that all that mattered was the three points.

I’m absolutely thrilled for Gerard. He’s got a lot of stick the last week, which he will accept as manager. But that win showed to him, as much as us, that the players are up for the fight and that they are willing to fight for the cause.

For him, it must be a relief. But like Gerard said and we will all agree with, we can’t get carried away. It’s one win. We probably need three more.

The last time we enjoyed such a victory, against Shamrock Rovers, we were annihilated against Derry City the following week.

It was a brilliant win, but we needed at least one shock victory given the fact we drew the more win- able games. I can’t see Finn Harps or Galway making life as easy for Rovers.

It was an extraordinary win, yes. And it’s given us all a bit of hope. But we are by no means out of it and there’s a lot of work to be done.

It’s a cliche, but that victory will mean absolutely zilch if we can’t go on and take something from our next few league games.

Some want to take aim at fans and say the team have proven them wrong.

They’ve proven nothing until they can seal our Premier Division status for 2018.