‘I’d love to be here next year’ - Lyttle
SLIGO Rovers manager Ger Lyttle said he would love to be at the club next season as the League of Ireland now enters the business end of the year.
Rovers now have just five league games left, along with the Irn Bru Cup.
Speculation continues over Lyttle’s future at the club, having won just two league games at home all season.
But the former Cliftonville boss says he would love to be here next year.
“We’re all playing for our futures. We’re working extremely hard, and we’ll continue to work hard until I’m told otherwise. That’s the way it is. I’d love to be here. I love the club and I love the supporters and everything about it. I’m passionate about my job and what I want to do and what I want to achieve here,” he said after the 2-1 defeat to St. Patrick’s Athletic.
He added: “It’s our first full season. We’ve got some things right and we’ve got a lot of things wrong, there’s no doubt about it and I put my hands up. Recruitment is key, and that’s something, hopefully I am going to be here, that’s something that is going to be vastly improved on. We’re probably a little bit young, we need more experience especially for nights like this where your big players roll their sleeves up.”
Having beaten the champions Cork City at Turners Cross in their last league outing, Rovers would have come into this game with a slight bit of confidence, but it seems as though nothing will help their home form.
“I’m very disappointed in the result and the performance. I don’t think we played to the levels that we had reached in previous weeks so I’m really disappointed in that aspect.
We missed Rhys tonight, David was struggling with an injury. We lost Kyle before the game, he didn’t start because he rolled his ankle.
“We had David Cawley there tongiht, I felt sorry for him, he probably shouldn’t have played but he wanted to fight through it. Some players are like that and some players aren’t and just unfortunately tonight was a bad night at the office for everyone.”
The second half penalty awarded to St. Pats knocked the stuffing out of Rovers, who had initially reacted well to go behind in the first half.
“It was just one of those nights where everything seemed to go against us. The penalty killed us and we didn’t react after it as quickly as we hoped.
“If I’m being honest, the only way we looked as if we were going to score was from a corner or a set play. We didn’t create enough chances, we didn’t adapt to the conditions, we didn’t move the ball as well as we should and had been. I feel really disappointed. We went from the levels of being really good to being just bog average.
“You can’t legislate for it. We knew what St. Pats were going to be about. We knew they were going to play a 3-5-2 and we worked on it. We just didn’t adapt to that going on.”
Lyttle says contact was minimal for the penalty which was awarded in the second-half.
On numerous occasions this season, Lyttle has been left reeling after referee’s decisions didn’t help his cause, and he feels Rob Rogers was no better this time around.
“Looking at it, I’m always fairly honest, when I first seen it I thought it was a dive. I’ve looked over it, it’s minimal in terms of contact. Simon Madden, he’s experienced, he’s done well to get the penalty. He’s played it around and none of their players are appealing for it, so that tells you a lot as well.
“He (the referee) couldn’t wait to get the whistle in his mouth, he’s a referee who hasn’t been very good for us throughout the season. That’s the way it goes.”
Rovers have tried, but failed all season to put together a run of form.
“We’ve spoke about it before the game, building momentum, building confidence, doing it for the supporters, but it just wasn’t to be. It’s driving me mad, we can’t put our fingers on why we’re not getting results here. You can say it’s unfortunate and a little bit of bad luck but I don’t think either team deserved to win tonight. They’ve got the break and we haven’t. That’s it.”
As for why his players struggle so much at The Showgrounds, Lyttle can’t quite put his finger on why.
“They seem to be bottling it a wee bit, let’s call a spade a spade. You can see it sometimes in terms of our play and when we go a goal down. In saying that we went a goal down and we reacted well. I really don’t know, I wouldn’t say the crowd were negative tonight and the supporters were quite positive during the game so we can’t use that as an excuse anymore.
“For whatever reason they’re not adapting to The Showgrounds which is very hurtful. We have great supporters, passionate supporters, we love that. To not show up here (and put in a poor performance) is not acceptable and we can’t accept that.
“We have to find a way, with three home games left to win them and give our supporters something to shout about.”