Talks ongoing over Lyttle’s future at club
SLIGO Rovers manager Ger Lyttle says talks are ongoing regarding his future with the club, but nothing has been finalised as of yet.
Rovers have just four league games left this season, and the added excitement of the Irn Bru Cup, and with the Bit O’Red almost safe from even the play-offs, talk about next year is well underway.
Lyttle has previously stated his desire to remain with Rovers next season.
“It has been ongoing but nothing’s been finalised yet or decided,” he told The Sligo Champion after the defeat to Waterford.
“It’s probably not ideal at the minute in many ways because you want to be settled, players aren’t sure what’s happening, obviously I’m not sure what’s happening and that alone can cause a bit of negativity in the camp so it’s probably a question that you need to ask elsewhere,” he added.
The Bit O’Red travelled to Waterford on Friday night hoping for three points in order to hold their lead on Limerick who occupy the play-off spot, but they were unable to take anything home from the RSC.
Frustrated by last week’s defeat against St. Patrick’s Athletic, Lyttle was once again left envious of his opposition’s bench, while he feels he does not have the strength in depth required at this level.
“The last couple of weeks have been very frustrating for us. We haven’t just got there. We have to be real as well. We’re coming up against a team who’s pushing for Europe. You look at the quality on the bench, I always judge a team by looking at their bench, like they had Bastien Hery, Akinade on their bench and they didn’t even bring on Gavan Holohan. That tells you where you are. We’ve a squad there, with no-one really injured only David, and a bench that’s full of 19s.”
He continued: “In saying that, I thought we matched them for large parts of the game. At times we played better football, they didn’t overly threaten. We tried to be told coming down here to win the game, we went with a 3-5-2 and we tried to get two up top but it didn’t really work for us. We were disappointed with the goal we conceded, it was the only chance in the first-half, in the second-half they’ve hit the post with a free-kick so all in all, I think a draw would have been a fair result. We probably didn’t deserve to lose the game, it was a big ask for the boys to come down here and travel five hours on a coach to go out and play 90 minutes of football and have loads of energy and do the stuff we normally do. I can’t fault the effort of the lads.”
While Waterford may not have threatened McGinty in goals tpo much throughout the evening, Niall Corbert in the Waterford goal was rarely troubled. Despite a change in tactics, Rovers still struggled to create chances.
“We didn’t create anywhere near the number of chances we had hoped. We changed the formation to try and create and have more opportunities in front of goal and have support up to Mikey. It obviously didn’t work so we changed it again at half-time. We matched up with Waterford. I thought at times we played the better football without creating much. Overall we’re disappointed.”
David Cawley’s absence was a notable one, while Rhys McCabe’s suspension last week did not help matters either.
“They have a great understanding. Jack has come in and done well, but we’ve been playing Jack more as a right back, we’re playing centre-backs at right back and the squad is not big and it’s disappointing and frustrating that we have to do that. It’s not natural to some players. Midfield is probably the focal point of our overall play with Rhys and David and we haven’t had them in a couple of weeks. David played last week with an injury, and he maybe shouldn’t have played but he wanted to do it for the team. Rhys coming off tonight doesn’t help so it has been but that’s football. You have to get on with it.”
Lyttle handed a first league start to Ed McGinty, and he says the Donegal man was well deserving of his place in the starting eleven, although some may have been surprised by his inclusion.
“It was and it wasn’t (a big call). Ed deserved his chance. He’s been knocking on the door. At training, he trains like a beast. He’s excellent, he’s as brave as anything. Probably the first five minutes he was a wee bit nervous but once he got settled he was excellent. I thought coming for crosses and things like that, it was natural to him.”
He was also full of praise for John Mahon, who again was impressive against a team of Waterford’s calibre.
“On top of that I thought John Mahon was outstanding. Maybe he could have stopped the cross coming into the box for the goal but outside of that he was unbelievable. He won every header, his tackles, his aggression, his willingness and his desire to win. The lad shouldn’t be here, let’s be honest, he should be across the water. He’s 18 years of age and he would put any man to shame in terms of his desire.”
The short break between that game and the next game against Bray Wanderers was welcomed by Lyttle, and he hopes it will give injured players the time required to recover. Injuries to Regan Donelon and Rhys McCabe will be assessed over the coming days.
“We’ll know more over the weekend. There’s a break, with the next game so it gives us time to nurse David as well, hopefully we can get him sorted and get him back. He was very sore after training yesterday (Thursday).”