Sligo Rovers manager Ger Lyttle has bemoaned his side's lack of fortune in front of goal following their defeat to Cork City at the weekend. The Bit O'Red boss watched from the sidelines as Sligo, who have failed to find the target in front of their
Sligo Rovers manager Ger Lyttle has bemoaned his side's lack of fortune in front of goal following their defeat to Cork City at the weekend. The Bit O'Red boss watched from the sidelines as Sligo, who have failed to find the target in front of their own support in 410 minutes of league football, fell to their eleventh defeat of the season. Although Cork continued to create after Kieran Sadlier's opener on just 53 seconds, Rovers weathered the Rebel’s yell and went on to dominate large parts of the second period. The Connacht men just couldn't find that killer touch, with substitute Liam Kerrigan almost finding an equaliser only to be denied by City goalkeeper Mark McNulty who pushed the youngster’s effort on to his crossbar. This, shortly before Graham Cummins settled the game against the run of play ten minutes from time. "For me, we were the better team for 75 minutes", Lyttle sighed. "We played the right way but didn't get anything so that's the disappointing thing. We didn't get the breaks. “But we've absolutely hammered their 18 yard box. Young Liam's come on and their keeper's made a good save to tip it onto the crossbar and two minutes later they go and put the final nail in the coffin." Rovers came into this game having kept three clean sheets on the bounce, recording an impressive win over Derry at the Brandywell eight nights previous. Lyttle praised his teams recent run but also noted how Cork, regarded as title favourites by many, showed the sign of champions to emerge unscathed. "The boys are very disappointed obviously, but they've got to take a lot of credit because their performance levels have been super recently. You try to drive that belief in to them because we know they're good players. For me, we gave Cork a football lesson and came away with nothing. "But that's the difference. That's why they're league champions, top of the league. They get the job done. We need to try and get there. "But we haven't scored again and that's the killer, our lack of goals. If we could just get the ball in the net! We've been unlucky in hitting the crossbar and we threatened them for fifteen, twenty minutes in second half. It just hasn't fallen for us." Rovers travel to Inchicore for the second time in the space of exactly one month on Friday next. Their last trip to St Pat's saw the beaten by two goals to nil but Lyttle says that Sligo can take some heart from what was a frustrating night on Saturday. "All I can ask these lads is to go out and perform and play for the badge. We got that the last few weeks. I thought we were the better team against Limerick and Shams. We've had a few draws. Tonight we've been the better team. We'll take confidence from that going into the Pat's game."
