My future needs to be sorted ASAP - Lyttle
SLIGO Rovers boss Ger Lyttle says he wants his future to be sorted, either way, as soon as possible to put the speculation surrounding his position to bed.
Rovers are now safe with three games to go, and Lyttle wants to know whether or not he will be at the club next year, as he continues to identify targets for the club.
He has always expressed his desire to remain with Rovers.
Speaking after Saturday night’s victory over Bray Wanderers, Lyttle said: “I think it needs to be addressed and sorted ASAP. We’re coming to the stage of the season where clubs are doing their business. It’s important that you get in early.
“I’ve identified where I want to be, I’ve identified what I need, what’s going to help us, what’s going to help young players as well and what type of player we need to bring it. It’s important we get this done. It’s been a roller-coaster season.
He continued: “Let me stress, it’s been only a season. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you’re never going to build a winning team that’s going to challenge, we’ve got to understand that we don’t have the big budgets of other clubs, so it’s important that we manage that right and develop our own players and identify where we go next and how we can go to the next level.
“I think there’s been progression, people will say ‘you’re full of nonsense’ but there’s been baby steps, but there’s been progression. We stayed up, just about, last season, and now three games left we’re safe.
“What right do we have, when we survive on the last day of the season, to go and challenge for Europe or whatever? That’s not an excuse. I’d love to be. If you look at all the games, there’s been fine margins between them.
“It’s important that we build on that and address it and make sure going forward next year that we have that type of group that can go on and win games. Hopefully we can get things sorted out pretty quick.”
Rovers’ win over Bray on Saturday night was only their third league win of the season at home, with two of those victories coming against the Seagulls.
“We’re thrilled that we were able to show up tonight in front of a big crowd. There’s always a fear that you could freeze but I thought that we were on it from the start. You could tell in the warm up that the boys were very focused.
“We played a real good tempo tonight, people could probably say ‘we’re playing Bray and they’re down and they’re relegated’ but it’s never agiven. Those boys were playing with no fear because they were basically relegated coming here.
“I always have a fear with teams like that because they have nothing to play for so they’re relaxed. To be fair they gave us a good game tonight. I’ve got to credit our boys for getting the win.”
The hosts were well on top from the very start, and should have been well ahead at half-time. The story of Rovers’ season, Lyttle conceded.
“It’s been the story of the season where we’ve been on top in many games, we said it at half-time to the boys that we’ve dominated the game and it just takes one lapse of concentration or one silly mistake and the other team scores. All of a sudden you’re down, you’re flat, so it was important that we got the first goal, and build from it.
“Of course we did what we’ve been doing, we’ve got carried away with ourselves and left ourselves wide open and they’ve went and scored and you’re thinking ‘ah Jesus here we go’ but we responded really well and really quick.
“Mikey took his goal really well and Caolan McAleer from a great cross in and I think after that there was only going to be one winner.”
Despite allowing Bray back into the game, Rovers held out for the win, with the result being the most important thing, according to the former Cliftonville boss.
“Nothing is ever easy at this stage of the season, or even this season for us.
“The important thing tonight was just the win, secure our position in the league, give us something to build on, give us something to shout about. Liam Kerrigan and Darren Collins, Ed McGinty and John Mahon, that for me is brilliant for the club that we’re working really hard with the youth and getting them in. That will stand them in great stead.”
He continued: “You’re looking at the results last night and obviously Derry versus Limerick was the game I was focusing on and to be honest, for some reason I thought Limerick would have got something in that game.
The focus was there and I could see it, the training’s been excellent. Don’t get me wrong it’s been very very difficult the last two weeks trying to manage the group and keep us focused, without a game last week, we had a few injuries and we got them back and fair play to Tom and Dec the physios for doing that.
“There’s been a real togetherness about them. We were ready to win tonight. I didn’t care too much about the performance, it was mainly about the win.