Lyttle hails ‘different gravy’ Dave Cawley
SLIGO Rovers manager Ger Lyttle felt his side were well deserving of their three points against Derry City on Friday night.
Trailing 1-0 at the break, Rovers battled hard in the second-half and staged a rare comeback, to win the game 2-1.
Lyttle said: “I didn’t think we deserved to be 1-0 down. I thought we had most of the play. Some of the possession, the passing and movement was excellent in the first half.
“We just couldn’t get that goal or that final ball or that final shot or whatever was letting us down. We looked at a couple of things at half-time and spoke to the boys about where we could hurt them. I thought we could be a bit more aggressive with our starting position and get our midfield higher up. I thought we done that.
“I’m really delighted, it’s a massive three points for us. To come here, it’s a difficult place, I thought the boys deserved it. To come away from here with even a point I’d have been disappointed.”
Too often this season, the Bit O’Red have played well but been undone by individual errors, and come away from a good performance with nothing. “THERE was a lot of leadership on the pitch tonight. I thought Mitchell Beeney at times done really well, the back four, and five at times were excellent. Then in midfield Rhys is getting stronger in terms of being a leader and a captain. Lee Lynch, David,
“I could go through them all. I thought we managed it really well. They’re always going to come at us when we were 2-1 up. We managed it perfectly well.”
The Rovers boss said they had worked all week in training on their shape with Derry in mind.
“We worked on it all week. You know what this league is like, everybody finds out everything. We worked from when we started back, all the work has been on our shape. Roles and responsibilities and that. The boys have took to it really well. It’s a system that potentially could suit us in terms of the players we have.”
Substitutes Kris Twardek, Caolan McAleer and Raff Cretaro all made an impact upon their introduction by Lyttle on Friday night.
“Both (Twardek and McAleer) were disappointed that they didn’t start and I’m glad they were because that’s what you want, boys fighting for their place and making it difficult for me to leave them out. They’ve both come on tonight and Raff as well.
“Caolan’s been up and down with his performances and we had a few rash words with individuals on Monday after the Shams game. We told them we need that consistency more often, especially from the wide players.
“He’s gone out there tonight and proved that he can do that so we’re happy for him.”
The former Cliftonville boss has stressed the importance of building momentum numerous times throughout the season, but that has not really happened for his side just yet.
With Rovers playing Derry again last night in the semi-final of the EA Sports Cup, and hosting Longford Town in the first round of the FAI Cup on Saturday before a visit to Market’s Field to play Limerick, he feels that this is the perfect time to start putting a run of form together.
“We’ve got to build from that and we’ve got to be confident. It’s a lovely feeling when you win and you get used to it and remember the feeling cause when you lose it’s the worst thing ever. We won’t get carried away, we’ll stay humble and we’ll stay focused.
“I keep stressing we have good players technically and it’s a mindset of not believing in yourself. Derry are 4th/5th in the league. Why can’t we be up there with them? We’re every bit as good as them. It’s that know how of winning games, we knew how to win that game. There was a great determination in the second half to win it.
I think now is a great opportunity. If we got a win we’d be playing Cork or Dundalk in the next game. We won against Bohs and then the game was called off.
“There’s a great opportunity now to build, not only the result but the performance as well. When you get a win you can’t wait to get back at it again.
“We’ve a great opportunity now at home with the crowd behind us to go and win or to go and enjoy it.”
For once, Lyttle’s side were the ones capitalising on individual errors by the opposition to create chances.
“It’s the team that makes fewer mistakes, is clinical and takes their chances.
“Tonight we didn’t make many mistakes, although I thought we could have stopped their goal, we didn’t put pressure on quick enough so that was disappointing.
“It’s a small negative. The big positive is coming from behind, winning the game and getting three points.”
David Cawley signed a new contract with the club during the week, and he is now Rovers’ top scorer with five goals.
“He’s different gravy. He’s not the most vocal person. He’s a gentleman. He does his talking on the pitch. He’s our top goalscorer now outright so there you go.
“There’s more in him. he had a header in the first-half he could have got. Delighted for him, hopefully the rest can build on that and see if they can start chipping in with goals.”