Rovers focusing on catching teams ahead

DAVID Cawley says Sligo Rovers are still hoping to catch the teams ahead of them as the season nears its conclusion.

Although, he admits that their chances have been slashed somewhat following Saturday night’s defeat to St. Patrick’s Athletic. “IT was very disappointing,” said Cawley, who filled in as captain in Rhys McCabe’s absence. “We were looking for three points to claw back in with the lads ahead of us, Bohs and Derry it looks like now, and Pats but now they’ve got three points again so that will be unlikely.”

He said that game sums up Rovers’ season, having kept up the trend of responding well to going behind before becoming architects of their own downfall once again.

“We huffed and puffed, especially in the first-half with a lot of set pieces. When we got the goal I thought we would kick on. I’m not too sure about that penalty but they got the penalty and it was difficult after that. We had a difficult night anyway trying to play out. It was a disappointing night all round.

He added: “There’s been ups and downs all year and that game just sums it up I think. We went behind, we stayed in the game and I think we finished the first-half stronger than them.

“We were looking to kick on and get the second. They tucked the penalty away and again we were huffing and puffing trying to get back, hitting long balls in the box and they were defending well on a horrible night.”

Rovers are well ahead of Limerick, but are not mathematically safe as of yet.

Cawley says, though, that Rovers are not focusing on that, but are focusing on who is above them and the possibility of catching them before the season ends.

“There’s that way of looking at it. The way we’re looking at it is we wanted to catch Bohs, Derry and Pats and finish out the season as well as we can. Another setback tonight but we’ll go again next week.” With Rovers struggling for home form all season, and manager Ger Lyttle seemingly unable to figure out why they have struggled, Cawley too is unsure as to why they have been so poor at The Showgrounds.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve had an excellent performance at home where we’ve played excellently for 90 minutes, we’ve played halves really well. I don’t know what it is,” he said. Cawley played on Saturday evening despite struggling all week with his knee, he was eventually substituted late in the second half as he was quite clearly struggling.

The task doesn’t get any easier for Rovers, however, as they take on Waterford this Friday evening at the Regional Sports Centre.

In their last meeting in the southeast, Rovers drew 1-1 with Alan Reynolds’ men.