Bit o’Red ‘making too many mistakes’ - Lyttle
SLIGO Rovers manager Ger Lyttle conceded that his side are making too many mistakes at the minute that are costing them games.
Rovers were undone on Saturday night by two individual errors, from which Dundalk scored.
Pat Hoban’s opener came as a result of a Seamus Sharkey error, before Sharkey and Patrick McClean failed to clear their lines, allowing Duffy to make it 2-0. “I think that’s (mistakes) the difference in this league. It separates the top teams from the normal teams, basic teams,” Lyttle said afterwards.
He was left frustrated by the mistakes that lead to both Dundalk goals.
“AT the minute we’re making too many mistakes that’s costing us dearly. I don’t think there’s an awful lot in the game in terms of general play. We’ve created chances and obviously we’ve made the mistakes, in the first-half it was a lack of concentration that’s cost us to go in 1-0 down at half-time, I didn’t think we deserved to be 1-0 down.
“(It was) something similar in the second-half and we’ve made the same mistakes. Dundalk is a top team with top players. They’re strong, they’re athletic and they’re organised and they’re quality on the ball. I thought we were a great match tonight and I’m obviously very disappointed that again we’re having the same conversation. We’ve come away with nothing.”
Rovers did create chances throughout the game, particularly in the first ten minutes when they easily could have taken the lead.
Whilst that side of things has improved from last year, the defensive problem is something that needs to be addressed.
“We’ve created chances and this team will create chances but unfortunately we need to get the other side right and at the minute we haven’t got that. Whether it’s a lack of confidence or composure or whatever it is, we need to address it quickly. It’s costing us games.”
The Lilywhites did have momentum on their side thanks to their good start and the fact they haven’t conceded a goal all season.
The former Cliftonville boss has promised that Rovers will get that momentum eventually.
“Dundalk haven’t conceded a goal this season and that’s confidence for you, that’s momentum. We don’t have that at the minute. We will get that, we’ll work hard at it and we’ll continue to work hard until we get it.
“Momentum is key. We had a good result against Bray, we had a hard fought draw against Bohs and we were looking to go again (against St. Pats) but it was called off and it’s set us back and disrupted us and obviously we’ve come here tonight feeling confident. We’ve trained hard all week.”
The negatives will be ironed out ahead of the Shamrock Rovers game, Lyttle hopes, while the positives will continue to be worked on.
“We started off the game really well, we started off positive, we created chances, hit the post, and even in the second-half we’ve had a right go and in the final third our composure has let us down and our final product has let us down. We’ll look at the positives, we’ll address the negatives and we’ll prepare for Shamrock Rovers game.”
The home fans, and Lyttle, were left incensed at times throughout the game as a result of decisions made by referee Rob Hennessy.
Lyttle accepts that the questionable officiating had no bearing on the game, but he was livid, nonetheless.
“I don’t want to start pointing fingers at officials and thinking it’s an excuse but I didn’t think we got anything tonight in our favour. The little free-kick or the 50/50 decisions we didn’t get any of those. It’s expected, players know that too.
“The Dundalks, Corks, Shamrock Rovers’ and teams like that are always going to get the rub of the green or the bounce of the ball but it’s no excuse. It’s not the fault of us losing. That’s the way it is and we’ll not use that for any excuse.”
Rovers travel to Tallaght Stadium on Friday evening where they take on Shamrock Rovers in only their third away game of the season.
Stephen Bradley’s side lost 2-1 to Waterford on Friday night in a thrilling game.
“It’s another tough game. Shamrock Rovers are a tough team, I was watching them the other night., I thought they were very unlucky and luck wasn’t on their side the other night. We’ll look at it this week. We’ll train and prepare right. Hopefully we can turn the negatives into positives and hopefully get a result.”