Lyttle laments ‘stupid mistakes’ that lead to Waterford defeat
ROVERS boss Ger Lyttle was left to rue costly mistakes that lead to Waterford taking all three points from The Showgrounds on Saturday night.
All three goals were avoidable, Lyttle felt, and that performance leaves the Bit O’Red with some work to do.
“THE three goals we’ve conceded are poor on our behalf. We’ve been solid defensively and I thought tonight we didn’t show that same desire and commitment in terms of our defending duties. We didn’t cope with Akinade on the first and second balls and they were landing on him. In the second-half we got a grip on it, we were a lot better. You can’t gift teams like Waterford goals like that, they will punish you which is frustrating,” he said afterwards.
“WE had to work very hard to get our goals and I don’t think they’ve had to work overly hard. I think we’ve got to learn from it. Look at the goals we conceded, I don’t think they really opened us up. “WE played ok at times, we got ourselves back in, brilliant. We showed character and you’ve got to applaud the boys for that, but we switched off and Lewis has switched off with the second ball coming out and lost his marker, all in all, disappointed with the result. Seamus Sharkey I thought did really well tonight, Adam Wixted was lively, a couple of young lads coming on is a positive. There is stuff we need to work on during the week.”
The mid-season break undoubtedly came at the wrong time for Lyttle’s charges, halting their momentum after wins over Derry City and St. Patrick’s Athletic before the break.
“We said it before the game that we’ve got to focus on looking that way (up the table) rather than the other way and ‘let’s go and be positive tonight and take it to Waterford’. And we didn’t. That’s the bottom line. The first-half performance wasn’t good enough, the second-half was slightly better. I don’t think Mitchell has had a save to make and I don’t think their keeper has had much to do either but we just have to move on.
“It was of course (momentum stopped by break). That was the big talking point when we did stop against Pats, you know, how’s the boys going to come back in? The boys, to be fair to them, came back fit and training’s been excellent. The boys have been at it. The boys are disappointed they didn’t get a result.”
Rovers were again short on number on Saturday night, but it did allow game-time for youngsters such as Liam Kerrigan and Darren Collins who made his first appearance for the senior team.
“We’ve had to manage. The lads that have come in have stepped up. Tonight we were a wee bit short. You’ve got to look at Waterford, they’re third in the league and we’re disappointed that we’ve come away with nothing. It shows, in terms of our mentality, how far we’ve come.
“I think we’re going to get better, I really do. You look at the experi- ence that they have, Aborah, Hery, Sander Puri, the two centre-halves, the two boys up front are a handful. They didn’t cut us open, that was our own downfall in terms of not defending properly and being soft. We’ll look at it and address it during the week.”
Lyttle had to make do without Rhys McCabe who served a one game suspension.
His loss was felt by Rovers on the night.
“I think the whole game, we missed Rhys. Him and David have formed a really good partnership and he’s probably stood up in the last 5/6 games. He was missed tonight. He was missed in terms of our craft, and getting on the ball and spraying passes and winning balls in the middle of the park. We weren’t at it tonight in terms of what we were before the break.”
Lyttle confirmed that he is looking at several options with the transfer window now open.
“Hopefully we’re looking at one or two options with different players. We’ll have Rhys McCabe back, Mikey Drennan will be available. That will give us a lot more know how in terms of the squad and hopefully we’ll have options of one or two others.”
Rovers travel to Wicklow next Sunday where they meet the league’s bottom side Bray Wanderers in what is a crucial game at the bottom.
“I think we’re capable of winning the games. Our changing room is very down and disappointed tonight and I think that’s a good thing. We’ve made stupid mistakes tonight and we’ve been punished and we can’t afford to do that again.
“We’ll not be approaching the game as a walk-over. We’ll be approaching the game with caution. Our games against Waterford have been close. Every game, bar the Cork game, were all close games. The difference is scoring goals and not conceding. Bray are fighting for their lives and we’re down there fighting as well and that’s going to be a difficult game.”