Yet to be seen if away form is enough to keep Lyttle in his job

THE latest episode in the long running saga that is Sligo Rovers’ home league form runs on for another fortnight at least. Next month’s game at home to Bray Wanderers will be the Bit O’Red’s eighth attempt since the last day of April to try and produce three points in front of our own crowd.

Ger Lyttle’s luckless streak to him must feel like a curse at this stage. Some sort of strange hoodoo put there by someone with a vendetta against him.

There have been wins in the cup, but nothing in the league. There have been some strange stories about clubs attributing winless streaks and trophy-less centuries to gypsy curses and the likes.

Barry Fry even went to the trouble of famously leaving his ‘scent’ on each of the corner flags at St Andrew’s during his time as Birmingham boss in a desperate effort to halt a three month streak without a home win.

It did the trick, although Fry was sacked anyway a few weeks after ‘breaking the spell’.

However, I’m yet undecided as to how I feel about the prospect of Ger Lyttle performing such an act.

It is baffling how Rovers’ away form can be so good, but yet we struggle so much on Church Hill. Lyttle’s future is yet undecided but a points return of nine from a possible 45 isn’t doing him much good with supporters today.

The performance itself was no better, no worse than what we’ve seen from most games at the Showgrounds this year. Pat’s were strong early on and were full value for their lead.

Rovers did put together some decent passages of play but never really troubled Brendan Clarke bar Mikey Drennan’s goal. The break seeming to come at exactly the wrong time for the home side.

Going on form, it should have brought little surprise that Rovers were totally inept in the second period with none of the fourteen players used in that second half deserving of a rating over a five or six.

The match as a whole wasn’t much to talk about bar Brendan Clarke’s ego.

A goalkeeper hitting a penalty only added to the non-competitive feel despite once more, a creditable attendance.

The defeat now stretches Rovers’ run without a league win at the Showgrounds to seven games and almost five months. Two wins and a draw from fifteen home games in total.

The lopsided fixture list skews the figures slightly, but the fact that we will have gone a full two rounds of league games without a home win come the Bray tie makes it sound ominous.

It’s yet to be seen if our polar opposite form away from Sligo will be enough to keep Lyttle in his job.

There are a few league games to see through yet, but last week’s Irn Bru Scottish Cup draw has added new interest into a season which is steadily petering out and struggling to hold the interest of supporters.

It’s not European football but it’s as close as we’ll come to it this season, maybe for a few years.

Previously a competition for just the lower league teams in Scotland, the ‘Diddy Cup’ as its fondly called across the Irish Sea, has given domestic clubs here a chance to experience something novel.

As a supporter, you want the away draw. The likes of Stenhousemuir, Arbroath and Ross County become your Vllazina, Vorskla Poltava and FK Banga.

It doesn’t suit a lot of Rovers supporters to travel to away games on this island every second week, never mind having to cross oceans.

But last year’s home defeat to Falkirk seemed like a missed opportunity, meaning there was to be no ‘competitive’ game outside of the island of Ireland.

A fifth or sixth placed finish was well beyond our capabilities, so it felt like the chance of travelling away had gone.

Fortunately, we play in the League of Ireland where you’re never that far away from something unexpected.

Financial discrepancies at Bray and Limerick denied their supporters a potential trip to the Scottish highlands, while Pat’s flat out rejected the thought of hosting Connah’s Quay or Inverurie Loco Works. Their loss if you ask me.