Lyttle left fuming over Cawley dismissal
SLIGO Rovers manager Ger Lyttle was once again left frustrated by refereeing decisions that went against his side in the aftermath of Saturday night’s scoreless draw with St. Patrick’s Athletic at The Showgrounds.
David Cawley’s injury-time dismissal reduced Rovers to ten men with seconds left, and Lyttle was infuriated by Damien McGraith’s decision.
“We get nothing. That’s me being brutally honest. We don’t get those decisions. We don’t get the 50/50 decisions. That’s the way it is. I’m disappointed because I’ve watched it, even when I seen it I didn’t think it was a red card. At the very most maybe a yellow card along with Killian Brennan, two fouls leading up to it. It wasn’t given. When David had tackled, I wouldn’t say he was attacked but they enticed him and obviously players got him sent off and that’s the way it is,” he said.
Having watched the video back numerous times, the Rovers boss was still unable to understand the decision.
“I’ve watched it about three times and I can’t believe what I’ve seen. There was a tackle, at the most, to calm things down maybe a yellow card. I’ve been told that he was sent off because his two feet left the ground, it’s not the case. You’re not allowed tot talk to anyone, you’re not allowed an opinion, when the referee come on tonight (after the change of referees), the first thing he’s done is book our player.”
Despite that, Rovers put in an excellent performance on the night, putting an end to their poor run at home, and keeping their first clean sheet of the season.
Totally dominant throughout the 90 minutes, the Bit o’Red will certainly feel as though it was two points dropped, but it does give Lyttle and his players something to build on.
“It was always going to be about the performance because the last home game we played here wasn’t good enough (defeat to Derry). We got that from the boys. We asked for a big performance, we asked for a clean sheet and obviously three points so two out of three - we got that. We’re disappointed that we didn’t get the three points but we have to build on that. I thought we were the better team tonight overall.”
Unlike that Derry game where Rovers struggled to assert themselves, they created chances on Saturday night, with Barry Murphy the busier of the two keepers on the night. Adam Morgan missed a glorious chance to give Rovers the lead, one that he would be expected to tuck away.
“We had a couple of chances first half, we had a couple of half-chances second half, obviously Adam is devastated that he’s missed a header. You’d probably bank on him to put them away but overall I thought we were fantastic in terms of our work-rate and our honesty. We pressed Pats, we didn’t allowed them to play, we didn’t allow them to get on the ball and at the end of the day that’s their game.”
John Mahon made his league debut for the club and was out- standing on the night, as was youngster Jack Keaney who has made an impression during his appearances for the club this season.
Their manager was impressed with the shift they both put in on the night.
“John is a top player. For me he’s going to be a future captain of this club. He has that in him. He’s learning the game. He’s aggressive, he’s good on the ball, and he’s got that leadership qualities in him for a young man. He’s the captain of the U19s. Jack Keaney is the same. They know what it’s about to play for this club. With Ed McGinty, an 18-year-old on the bench and Lewis Morrison, 19-year-old, we’ve got a young team. I hear a lot of managers talking about how young their teams are but if you go through ours and take Eduardo and Raff out we’re very young. We’re learning, we’ll get better. We have to build on this performance.”
Developing younger players through the youth system at Rovers so that they are good enough for the senior set-up is something that Lyttle wants to see become a regular occurrence.
“I think it has to be the DNA of this club because we can’t compete with the Dundalks, Corks and Shams and clubs like that in terms of budgets. It’s imprtant that we look after and develop our own. It’s a huge credit to Brian Dorrian, who’s worked with them for the last couple of years and Danny O’Leary as well. It gives the other young lads hope that there is a manager here that if they are good enough they will play.”
The Bit o’Red will travel to Waterford on Friday evening. The Rovers boss is under no illusions. With Rovers in the position that they are in, every game is as tough as the next one.
“They’re all tough. It’s no cliche. There’s no easy games in this league. Every team is capable of beating each other. I’ve watched St. Pats a few times this season and out of all the teams I’ve watched this year I’ve been most impressed by them in terms of how they play and how structured they are. It’s going to be the same in Waterford. I watched the Waterford/St. Pats game on Monday night, two teams trying to play football and do things the right way. It’s going to be another tough one but they all are.”
Putting an end to the dreadful run of form was a massive boost for Rovers, but the loss of Dave Cawley through suspension and potentially Rhys McCabe through injury will be a huge blow to Rovers. Lyttle, however, was still adamant to cling on to the positives.
“We owed the fans a massive performance tonight. We owed ourselves a massive performance tonight. We were the only team in the league not to keep a clean sheet this year so we’ve done that and that’s a monkey off our back. There’s a lot to build on. We’ve potentially lost Rhys tonight, we’ll look at that. Obviously Dave Cawley, we have to look at that. They’re two big players for us. Kyle, our captain, was out of the team tonight, Seamus Sharkey was off. We had young players there tonight who became men. I’ve got a great buzz from those young lads showing great commitment, and endeavour and courage and pride for the jersey. I’m happy but at the same time I thought we deserved to win.”