Ger Lyttle has called on his Sligo Rovers side to rediscover their pre-mid-season break form and return to winning ways against Bray Wanderers next weekend. The Bit O’Red boss was left despondent with the fashion of Rovers’ 3-2 defeat to Waterford
Ger Lyttle has called on his Sligo Rovers side to rediscover their pre-mid-season break form and return to winning ways against Bray Wanderers next weekend.
The Bit O’Red boss was left despondent with the fashion of Rovers’ 3-2 defeat to Waterford at the Showgrounds on Saturday evening. A hectic first half which threw up all five goals, saw Sligo two behind with just 19 minutes played.
Lyttle’s charges gallantly fought their way back into the game, scoring twice in three minutes, only to shoot themselves in the foot just past the half hour to allow the Blues take charge once again.
Speaking after the game, the Rovers boss has challenged his players to recapture the sort of form which saw them take wins from both the Brandywell and Inchicore in the lead up to the mid-season break.
He said: “I think we’re capable of winning next week but we’ve made stupid mistakes tonight and we can’t afford to do that.
“The two games we’ve played with Bray this year were close. We’ll be going down there knowing they’ll be fighting for their lives and we’ll be going down fighting for three points.”
“But we weren’t at it tonight in terms of what we were before the break. We need to get back to what we were like before the break. That was the big talking point for us after beating Pat’s. Our boys have been good in training since we came back but tonight, we were a bit flat.”
All three Waterford goals came either from set-pieces or subsequent phases following set-pieces. Acknowledging this, Lyttle says Sligo have a lot of work to do ahead upcoming visits to Bray and Bohemians, two teams either side of Rovers in the league table.
“The three goals we conceded were poor on our behalf”, he concedes. “We’ve switched off and not defended properly.
“We can’t give teams in this league those sort of chances because they will punish you. We’ve had to work hard for our goals and I don’t think Waterford have had to work overly-hard to get theirs. They didn’t open us up but they’ve still managed to score three.
“We showed character to get back in but we’ve switched off and they’ve come back and got the winner.”
Rovers will welcome back influential midfielder Rhys McCabe from suspension for next Sunday’s game. While new signing Mikey Drennan is in line to make his debut.
Lyttle has also hinted that one or two other new faces may feature at the Carlisle Grounds with bodies thin on the ground following recent departures and injuries.
“We’re looking at one or two options with different players”, he continues. “We’ll have Rhys and Mikey so that gives us more options and hopefully we’ll have an option to play one or two others.”
