‘I believe I will bring success to this club’
SLIGO Rovers manager Ger Lyttle says he fully believes that he has what it takes to bring the glory days back to the Showgrounds, despite Sligo Rovers’ current position.
Rovers are currently embroiled in a relegation battle as they sit two spots above the automatic relegation spot, and Friday night’s draw with Limerick did little to help their cause.
The Rovers boss has been on the receiving end of much criticism in recent weeks, from fans and commentators alike.
He understands the frustration of supporters, but he is confident that he is the right man for the job.
“I’m not saying I don’t mind it - nobody likes criticism but I think there has to be a realism from people and really look deep into what we have and where we are. It’s no dig or anything like that at the club. The budget isn’t anything like that of the top five or anything. We don’t have that.
“We’ve brought in some young players, we’ve taken a punt on some young players that we thought would step up and to be fair, it’s hard on them. I don’t think there’s a manager that will work harder than me. I will dig for everything, I will look for everything, I’ll try everything. I want the best for this club and I’m determined to get the best for this club.”
The main issue surrounding recent performances has been a lack of goals, although the clean sheet margin has improved, with the Bit O’Red picking up clean sheets in consecutive weeks.
“I think the performance levels have been there. There has been quality, but in the final third there hasn’t been. We need to do something about it. There’s only two things you can do, you can continue to work and hope the boys on the pitch will give us that quality or we need to bring in the players that can give us that quality and help us. That’s the two things we need to address. Outside of that I think there’s baby steps being made.
“The fans are frustrated and I think some people have their own agenda. I think this club needs stability. A manager coming in here is going to face the same problems that I am so if they think a new manager coming in is going to wave a magic wand and go ‘we’re going to win this game and we’re going to win this game’ - it’s not going to happen. I believe the club have the right manager.
“I believe in myself and I believe in my players. If you look at any job, throughout the years, it takes a year or two to build up your work ethic and your team around you, your contacts, that doesn’t happen in half a season. The most successful managers at the most successful clubs stick by their manager and support him and to be fair to the club they’ve shown me great support and hopefully that will continue and hopefully we can reward them down the line with that. Things like that are out of my hands.”
The former Cliftonville boss has vowed to keep working for the cause.
“I’ll continue to work as hard as I can. I’m paid to work for the club as a manager and I’ll continue to work. I love the club and I love the supporters and I love the people around. I’m so determined to bring success to this club and I think I will. I really do believe it. If other people don’t, then I can’t change that. The only way to change that is getting results.”
In reality, Rovers needed three points on Friday night. But again they appeared somewhat toothless in front of goal and were yet again left to rue their few missed opportunities.
“We obviously targeted three points. It’s a game we could have won and I think on the night we should have probably won although they’ve hit the bar twice out of nothing. I thought we were the better team. The first half I thought we played some really good football and we looked the brighter team, we looked like the team that was most likely going to score and try and win the game. We didn’t get the breakthrough which is the cry of the season. We look solid defensively now, we look decent from back to middle. We’re still a bit toothless in terms of our decision making in critical areas at critical times.
“That’s something we need to look at and something we need to improve. We can’t put all the pressure on the back four or back five all the time and expect them to defend for large parts of the game, although I don’t think we did until the sending off.”
Lyttle felt that John Mahon’s dismissal was harsh, and was frustrated that David Cawley was not awarded a penalty from an Eoin Wearen challenge.
“The sending off was harsh I thought on big John, he’s been excellent for us. We were still trying to go and win the game, we could have had a penalty or two.”
David Cawley’s late goal was ruled out for offside, and having watched it back, Lyttle felt the Bit O’Red are just not getting the breaks they require.
“The offside goal was very, very marginal. I’ve watched it back and I’ve been told it was Ally that was offside and Ally is definitely not offside. He’s got the touch to lead it on to Dave. You don’t get those breaks when you’re down at the minute. I’ll be honest and it might sound stupid but I’m not downbeat. I can see progress in this team. I can see that we’re close, we’re not far away. If I’m being truthful I think we’re short maybe two or three players to make a really good team. The boys are working extremely hard in training. Everything is there, it’s getting wins and putting the ball in the back of the net that’s the problem.”
Conceding goals from individual errors was Rovers’ biggest problem at the start of the season.
That issue appears to have been cleared up, but again the issue lies on the other end of the field.
“That’s the frustrating thing for me and my backroom staff. The boys are very frustrated. There was a couple of words said at fulltime about it. We took a bit of stick a few weeks ago about leaking goals and making mistakes, and at the start of the season. We’ve addressed that now and you can see we’re solid in that department at the minute. We’re now trying to work on the other side and a lot of our sessions now are attacking and trying to create openings and finding ways to take chances. There was a couple of half chances there tonight and there just seems to be a lack of belief.”
Lyttle put his faith in young Lewis Morrison to lead the line on Friday evening with Adam Morgan missing through injury.
“He’s a young lad and to carry that ‘we need goals’ can be hard and sometimes you wish you had a bit more experience to bring out the best in young Lewis Morrison, Jack Keaney and John Mahon who have been excellent anyway. I can’t fault the boys. They’re working so hard and I know people are frustrated and I know supporters are frustrated. Trust me, I’m as frustrated as them. At the end of the day we need a bit more in that key area. Hopefully we can get to the window and bring in some players that can add some quality to what we have.”
Rovers have come through a tough run of games, playing six games in less than four weeks.
“We had five of our starters out of the team tonight. It’s tough, I know Tommy was complaining about the schedule but the other week we had I think, Tuesday, Friday and Monday. They didn’t have one. The games are scandalous and that doesn’t make sense to me. We’re down Gary Boylan, we’re down Regan Donelon, we’re down Adam Morgan, Raff was 50/50 before the game. We have three young lads, under 19s, sitting on the bench tonight. We were probably going to put young Liam Kerrigan on until the sending off happened. That side of things I’m really happy with because there are good young lads there and I am happy to give them chances. I’d love a wee bit more experience in the team in terms of helping them develop.”
He added: “I’m extremely frustrated. Am I disappointed in the end? Probably not because at the start of the season we probably would have folded after getting a man sent off. There’s definitely signs there of positivity and there is togetherness. We’ll keep working on it and we’ll keep asking the boys to put in that shift.”