Tough financial times for Rovers, but club will always be well supported

THE so-called ‘business end’ of the season is very quickly approaching with Sligo Rovers still stuck right there in the danger zone. Results over the weekend both went in Rovers’ favour and against Rovers.

A win for Finn Harps is not ideal, but their defeat of Limerick means the Blues are dragged into the mix once again. Galway earning a point means they are still not gone yet, but St. Patrick’s Athletic being hammered 6-0 means their goal difference suffers a blow which can only help us.

With no league game since the win over Cork, Rovers haven’t really had a chance to build on that. The break probably came at the worst time possible.

Perhaps in any other year, Rovers’ inclusion in a competition such as the Irn Bru Challenge Cup would have attracted a bigger crowd for such an unusual, and novel, game.

It was hard to get excited about it. The club did their part and promoted the game well, but it’s still near impossible to attract people to a game like that.

Again in any other season we would have been so keen to win that game, go on and maybe get an away trip. It certainly would have been nice, for sure.

But I doubt any tears will be shed over that Rovers defeat. And to their credit, the Bit O’Red did put it up to their Scottish counterparts on the night.

One of, if not the, strongest team in the competition, Falkirk are a good side and we were all aware of that coming into the game.

On the night, defender Seamus Sharkey was brilliant. Although his unfortunate slip did allow the visitors to take the lead, he made amends when he scored to make it 1-1, and was otherwise brilliant.

Sharkey’s been a brilliant addition since coming into the Rovers set-up, and although he had to bide his time and wait to get a chance in the starting 11, he has become a staple of the Rovers’ starting 11.

He’s struck up a good partnership with Kyle Callan-McFadden, and they will prove crucial to our battle to beat the drop over the coming weeks.

What will also be crucial over the coming weeks and months is the support of the fans. Rovers are renowned as having some of the best support in the league, whether it’s financially or numbers coming through the gates.

And even with things going somewhat pear-shaped this season, attendances have stayed steady throughout - in that sense we are very fortunate.

There has been several pleas from Rovers this season to ask fans to stick by them, to support them each week and of course to support initiatives such as the annual draw or the ‘last man standing’ competition and so on and so forth.

With no home game until October, things have to be tight financially. Anyone would be able to tell you that a lack of home games and gates means that the purse strings are very, very tight.

Rovers’ next two league games are away. And there are only two home games left for the remainder of the season. One would expect things to be very tough financially at the minute.

With club officials expected to be meeting to discuss this issue, I’m sure there will be some initiative or plan formed to try and fix the problem as much as possible.

And as usual, we all know it will be fully supported by the fans, even if it can be difficult to keep digging deep to give money to the club, people will still be willing to do so.

We’ve enjoyed a mini off-season with no league games for a couple of weeks, but it’s back to business Saturday week when we meet Finn Harps.

At least with the Falkirk game out of the way, attention can turn to the real task at hand.