The quest for a first point of the Women’s Premier Division season continues for Sligo Rovers as they welcome Athlone Town to the Showgrounds on Saturday evening, 5pm, writes Conall Collier.

Fifth-placed Athlone Town will go into the encounter some eight points adrift of leaders Peamount Utd, but with a game in hand, and they will be aiming to add another three points as they bid to close the gap on the top four.

Buoyed by a 2-0 victory against Cork City last weekend, they will adopt a confident approach and will be keen to get another victory.

Last week they managed a fourth minute lead goal from Chloe Singleton, but they had to wait until the 80^th minute before Dana Scheriff wrapped up the three points with a second goal although Gillian Keenan and Madison Gibson also had chances.

The Westmeath side will certainly pose some serious questions for the Bit O’Red this weekend.

However, looking for positives after six successive defeats is quite straightforward for manager Steve Feeney after yet another encouraging display at Eamonn Deacy Park despite a narrow (1-2) defeat against Galway Utd last Saturday.

After conceding two goals in the opening six minutes, the Sligo Rovers players displayed remarkable resilience and fortitude to get back into the game.

Galway failed to capitalise on a number of good chances and the Bit O’Red got back into contention in the 57th minute when Emma Doherty headed to the net. 

Substitute Fiona Doherty went close to an equaliser soon after.

Sligo Rovers showed enough improvement last weekend against Galway to suggest that they can also pose problems for Athlone and a repeat performance could be enough to get some points on the board.

Sligo Rovers Academy will have six games this Bank Holiday weekend with each team bar our Under 15’s in action.

On Saturday, our Under 17 Men’s team host Athlone Town at Noon at The Sean Fallon Centre.

The side then travel to Shamrock Rovers on Monday afternoon with a 3pm kick off at Roadstone.

Our Under 14 team host Dundalk at 3pm at The Sean Fallon Centre. The side are unbeaten in their last three games.

Darren Kelly’s Under 17 Womens team take on Athlone Town away from home at 2pm at Athlone Town Stadium. Last time the sides met, Athlone won 2-1 in a tightly contested game.

Sunday sees both our Under 19 teams in action.

Our Under 19 Mens team host Finn Harps at 2pm at The Sean Fallon Centre while our Womens team take on Bohemians in Dublin at the same time.

You can follow all our Academy updates across our Academy social media pages.

Sligo Rovers joined up with Sligo Sport and Recreation Partnership and the East City Walking group on Thursday morning to walk with them as part of their weekly activity.

The group meet at The Riverside Hotel in Sligo each Thursday morning and set off around the area before coming back for a chat and some refreshments.

Players Garry Buckley, Mark Byrne and Karl O’ Sullivan met with the group and joined them for the start of their weekly walk.

Our 50KM Challenge is still ongoing and we wish to thank Sligo Sport & Recreation Partnership for their support of the Fundraiser and to the members of the East City Walking group for welcoming us.

Sligo Rovers make the journey up the N4 to Dublin twice this Bank Holiday weekend with games against Shamrock Rovers on Friday night followed by a Monday afternoon kick off against St. Patrick’s Athletic.

Rovers come into the game on Friday following a 3-1 win over UCD at The Showgrounds last Saturday night with Max Mata’s opening goal added to by a Fabrice Hartmann brace either side of half-time.

Shamrock Rovers defeated St. Patrick’s Athletic 2-0 at Richmond Park on Friday night.

Russell is excited for the weekend ahead:

‘’We’re all excited for the two games this weekend. Shamrock Rovers and St Patricks athletic have shown good form recently so it’ll be a tough test.

‘’However, I know the players are relishing the challenge of going away from home and trying to close the gap on the teams above us.

‘’We had a good performance last weekend. It was important to pick up the three points in what is such a tight and competitive league.

‘’There will be a lot of twists and turns over the next few weeks but it’s important that we concentrate on ourselves and what we’re trying to do on the pitch.

‘’I have such believe in this group of players and staff. If we continue to work hard and set high standards we will get our rewards over the course of the year’’.

Sligo Rovers supporters wishing to travel to Dublin on Friday night should buy their tickets online in advance of travelling. A large support is expected once again to follow the team following our previous games in Dundalk and Shelbourne which saw over away 700 supporters in attendance across both games.

Rovers boss Russell is asking for all those who can, to come and get behind the team:

‘’Our travelling support has been fantastic so far this season. The players have responded well to the backing and they are all eager to put in top performances over the long weekend’’.

In team news, Garry Buckley, Karl O’ Sullivan, Mark Byrne and Gary Boylan are all ruled out.

Bogdan Vastsuk and Eanna Clancy are back in training and could feature in the squads over the weekend as well as John Mahon who missed the game against UCD with an ankle knock picked up in training but is near an immediate return.

The game kicks off at Tallaght Stadium at 8pm.

With two trips to Dublin in just three days, we understand the difficulty for supporters in travelling to get behind the team in person.

If you can’t make them, both are Live on LOI TV and Ocean FM so you can follow every minute with us.

Away tickets: https://www.shamrockrovers.ie/away-fans-tickets/

Our Academy had four games over the weekend between Saturday and Sunday.

First up was our Under 17 Womens team who hosted Treaty United at The Sean Fallon Centre on Saturday afternoon.

An entertaining game ended up with Rovers coming out on top, 3-1 the final score thanks to goals from Amy Murphy, Emma Walsh and Anna McDaniel.

Later that day our Under 14 side took on Finn Harps in Letterkenny.

Colm Jinks’ side took the lead through Matteo Seccondino’s second goal of the season but the hosts levelled late on to ensure the points were shared.

On Sunday both our Under 19 teams were in action with our Womens team hosting Shamrock Rovers at 1pm at The Sean Fallon Centre, with the Dubliners winning 2-0.

Our Mens team beat Athlone Town 2-1 away from home thanks to goals from Niall Holohan and Rasheed Yeboah.

Our Under 17 Men’s game against Shamrock Rovers was postponed following the death Oran Gethins, brother of our Academy player Zach.

We extend our deepest sympathies to Zach and the rest of his family.

We wish to thank Shamrock Rovers and the FAI for their understanding of the situation.

The multi-cultural dressing room that represents Sligo Rovers this season includes Lukas Browning who can make a claim for instant hero-worship amongst the Sligo Rovers supporters following a sensational 94th minute equaliser on the opening night of the 2023 season at the Showgrounds.

Lukas was born in Drogheda, he moved to his mother’s native country, Sweden, at the age of two, played up through the under-age ranks, then moved back to Ireland where, as a teenager, he had a stint with St Kevin’s Boys in Dublin.

There was a return to Sweden and on to Holland, back to Sweden again before returning to Ireland this year.

Multi-lingual is also a skill he has mastered and he can speak Swedish, Dutch and English. He has also played under-age for both Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.

Of more importance, on his first game for Sligo Rovers he scored that 94th minute equaliser against the defending champions to earn a 1-1 draw for his new club.

Lukas Browning Lagerfeldt, full name, was born in the shadow of United Park, at the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, the son of a Dublin man who lives in Drogheda and a Swedish mother.

Parents are Brian, a successful businessman with a connection to Drogheda Utd, and physiotherapist mother Susanna from Stockholm. Lukas also has one older sister, Laura, who lives and works in Stockholm.

With that sort of pedigree, sport was always going to rate high on the on the radar for a young player who honed his football skills at the well-respected IF Brommapojkarna.

Lukas takes up the story:

“Bromma is a very well-regarded club in Sweden, it has the top Academy for producing players, but it is generally up and down between the top two divisions,” he explained.

“There are five or six players that came through the club in the Swedish national team.

“I went to Holland when I was 17 and played there for three years with FC Twente, I was lucky in that I was able to complete my education also, remotely, and really enjoyed that time.

“It was a good environment and a great education in terms of football, a high standard and players from all over the world.

“I didn’t manage to make the breakthrough there and decided to go back to Sweden a few years ago.

“I joined a club in Gothenberg, Orgryte IS, and was there for two seasons before I moved to Dalkurd, a club based north of Stockholm in Uppsala, for last season.

“Orgryte and Dalkurd were both in the second tier of Swedish football,” he added.

Lukas indicated that his mother (Susanna) has been very helpful to his career.

“My mother is a physio, but it’s not just all about that, her advice about a healthy lifestyle and managing injuries and strains, that’s very useful information for a sportsperson and I try to take that on board at all times, a healthy lifestyle and training,” he stated.

“When I was in Sweden, I joined the under-age National team, but I also wanted to play for Ireland and got a chance about 10 years ago when to work on that when I moved to back to Ireland and had a six-month stint with St Kevin’s Boys.

“In Sweden I learned the Swedish way, play out from the back, pass the ball, but with St Kevin’s it was more about minimising mistakes and I learned something different from my time with the Dublin club.

“I also got the chance to play for the Republic of Ireland at u-15, u-17 and u-19, Colin O’Brien was the 15s manager and then Tom Mohan was the 17s manager, during that time I played for both Sweden and Ireland under-age teams.

“I would say that the mentality of playing the game in Sweden is a bit different to Ireland, the Irish players would have a more aggressive approach.

“There would be a lot of emotion amongst the Irish players representing their country whereas the Swedish players had a calmer approach, more focused on the technical side of the game.

“I played for Ireland against Sweden, I met a lot of players on the Sweden team that I knew from the Academy, it was in a Euro qualifier and the game was played in Finland, it was a bit unusual in a way,” he suggested.

Regarding the move to Sligo, how did that come around?

“It’s all down to my agent, it developed from there and I spoke to the manager (John Russell), it seemed like it would be a good move for me and I was happy to get the chance to sign for the club,” he maintained.

” I visited Sligo before I signed and that helped my decision as well, I had lived in Gothenburg and Stockholm before Sligo.

“I’m happy with the move, Sligo is a very nice place, the people are very welcoming and friendly, then there is the scenery, completely different to Stockholm.

“There is Rosses Point, the beaches, the mountains, they are all really amazing, but the Town is also great.

“I would head out with some of the other players and when we go into the town the people will talk to us, that’s very nice to experience.

“Even in the stadium, there is such a mix of people, older supporters, young supporters, boys and girls, all out to enjoy the game in a real community type of way.

“Football is football no matter where you are and we all know that results are important, but it’s a bit different in Sligo, there is the friendliness of the local people, very enjoyable.

“My total focus is on football at the moment, it’s a short career and I have to make the best of it while I can.

“The schedule in the League of Ireland is fairly hectic and the games are coming along fairly quickly.

“I’m part of a new squad for this season and we will find more improvement and consistency as the season progresses.

“There is a lot of different languages in the dressing room, but we generally communicate in English,” he said.

Asked if he could tell the referee something in Dutch or Swedish and get away with it, Lukas didn’t think so.

“I think if I tried that the referee would get the message fairly quickly and I mightn’t get away with it, so, no, I won’t be trying that, unless it’s a positive comment,” he indicated.

“I picked up a yellow card last week against Drogheda, I thought it was a bit harsh and when you get a card early in the game it changes the way you have to play.

“The conditions were difficult due to the wind and rain and I felt that it contributed to the outcome, the tackle I made it actually looked much worse than it was, but nothing you can do about that.

“Look, refereeing isn’t easy and most people love to complain about decisions, whether it’s here in Ireland, in Sweden or in Holland,

“What I find here is that there are some referees and it’s possible to talk to them, others not so much, but it has to be difficult for the referee also, especially if he has a large group of players all shouting at him at once,” he suggested.

And what about that equaliser against Shamrock Rovers in the opening game of the season?

“It was great to get the equaliser in that game, I think we deserved it, but I didn’t really realise at the time what it meant to everyone, especially the supporters, but I found out about that afterwards,” he explained as he also answered a query about playing on artificial pitches.

“Firstly, all games should be on grass, where possible, that not always the situation in Sweden, but here in Ireland I think games should be on grass.

“I have no problem playing on the astro pitches, I grew up with that in Sweden and it was fine, good quality astro.

“I find here, in Derry and Dundalk, the astro isn’t as good a quality as it could be, I think that’s the real issue, the standard of the pitch, it’s not a big issue for me, but I’d still prefer to play on a grass pitch,” he concluded.

Sligo Rovers supporters wishing to travel to our Bank Holiday Weekend games against Shamrock Rovers (Friday, 8pm) and St. Patrick’s Athletic (Monday, 3pm) are asked to purchase their tickets online in advance of travel.

You can buy your tickets via the links below:

Shamrock Rovers: https://www.shamrockrovers.ie/away-fans-tickets/

St. Patrick’s Athletic: https://www.stpatsfc.com/ZPdkydIDnV/

We look forward to seeing the Red Army out in force once again.

Sligo Rovers got back to winning ways at The Showgrounds on Saturday night with a 3-1 win over UCD.

Manager John Russell made four changes to the starting team that drew with Drogheda United last weekend with John Mahon (knock), Stefan Radosavljevic, Frank Liivak and Lukas Browning all replaced by James Finnerty, making his Rovers debut, Niall Morahan, Kailin Barlow and Johan Brannefalk who made his first start since recovering from his recent ankle injury.

The Bit O’ Red started brightly and Kailin Barlow was denied by the alert Kian Moore in the UCD goal who got down well to deny him after good work by Max Mata.

Rovers pressure paid off after just five minutes when Barlow’s in swinging corner was met by Mata who powered home a header at the near post.

It was all Rovers for the rest of the half and Fabrice Hartmann and Barlow were causing all sorts of problems for the Students who gave away a number of corners as they looked to keep Rovers out.

On 25 minutes, the home side’s pressure paid off as Nando Pijnaker swept a long range diagonal pass to Hartmann on the ride hand side. The German took it down on his chest and played Barlow in down the line. Barlow’s reverse pass found Hartmann again who beat two players and cut inside on his left foot and stroked it into the far corner to double Rovers’ lead.

Rovers looked for a third goal through the likes of Mata, Hartmann and Barlow but it was UCD who got the next goal on the stroke of half time, totally against the run of play.

A free kick from the left was punched away by Luke McNicholas but the ball fell for Mark Dignam on the edge of the box who fired into the bottom corner via a deflection, meaning it was a narrow lead for Rovers at half time.

The second half was a slightly slower pace than the first from Rovers but the hosts were always in pretty good control and Hartmann went close on 66 minutes with a long dribble down the right after being played in by Barlow. The German’s shot went wide.

Niall Morahan went close soon after with a side footed strike from the edge of the box but it was Hartmann who made it three just two minutes later.

Johan Brannefalk played the ball out to him on the right. He drifted inside on his left foot, going past the UCD defenders before shooting toward goal. The ball looped over Kian Moore and into the corner to seal the win for Rovers.

It was Hartmann’s last involvement in a Man of the Match display as he was replaced by Frank Liivak soon after.

David Cawley was introduced for his first appearance of the season along with Lukas Browning, replacing Brannefalk and the impressive Barlow for the last ten minutes and Stefan Radosavljevic was brought on after 87 minutes for Max Mata who received a standing ovation from the home supporters.

The game finished 3-1 to Rovers who now face two away games next Friday and Monday against Shamrock Rovers and St. Patrick’s Athletic respectively.

Galway Utd took the Women’s Premier Division points this afternoon at Eamonn Deacy Park with a 2-1 win against a Sligo Rovers side that is still looking for a first win of 2023.

However, on this occasion there was some extra bite from the Bit O’Red players despite the concession of two early goals that ultimately decided the outcome.

Sligo Rovers manager Steve Feeney made a number of changes from the team that played the previous week against DLR Waves.

There was a first start between the posts for Bonnie McKiernan while Helen Monaghan and Amy Roddy also came into the starting 11.

Galway Utd manager Phil Trill made two changes from the team that earned a 1-1 home draw with Shamrock Rovers last week.

Abbiegayle Ronayne replaced Jessica Berlin between the posts while Kate Thompson came in for Rola Olusola.

Hosts Galway had two goals on the scoreboard inside the opening six minutes as Kate Thompson and Jenna Slattery both found the net to give Trill’s side the initiative.

However, the hosts failed to capitalise on a number of good chances for the remainder of the half and it was 2-0 at the interval.

Steve Feeney made a couple of changes at the break and the Bit O’Red got back into contention in the 57^th minute when Emma Doherty headed to the net with a good finish.

Substitute Fiona Doherty went close to an equaliser soon after, but was denied by Abbiegayle Ronayne who made a brilliant finger-tip save.

Bit O’Red ‘keeper Bonnie McKiernan made a good save with 15 minutes remaining to deny Aoife Thompson as the hosts pushed for a third goal against an improved Sligo Rovers second-half performance.

Galway Utd – Abbiegayle Ronayne; Aoibheann Costello, Isabella Beletic, Jamie Erickson, Jenna Slattery, Kate Thompson, Lynsey McKey, Gemma McGuinness, Therese Kinnevey, Amy Madden, Abbie Callanan. Subs – Aoife Thompson for Callanan 68 mins, Nicole McNamara for McKey 86m

Sligo Rovers – Bonnie McKiernan; Helen Monaghan, Katie Nugent, Keela Scanlon, Sarah Kiernan, Amy Roddy, Leah Kelly, Emma Hansberry, Lauren Boles, Casey Howe, Emma Doherty. Subs – Fiona Doherty for Monaghan and Jodie Loughrey for Kiernan both half-time, Keri Loughrey for Nugent 71 mins, Katie Melly for Boles and Aoife Brennan for Howe both 84m.

We host UCD tonight (Saturday) at 7.45pm at The Showgrounds in The SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division.

We outline all our Match Night information below:

Turnstiles:

Turnstiles open from 6.30pm.

Buy tickets in advance: https://srfcdirect.com/match-tickets/

Or pay on the turnstiles. Card payments accepted at certain turnstiles.

Seating:

Seating is first come, first served in all areas of the ground. Seats with names on them must be respected as these are Gold Season Ticket members who have paid for their seat to be reserved all season. Anyone found sitting in a seat that is not theirs will be asked to move.

Security:

Members of our security team will carry out on the spot checks on bags and persons entering the ground. Alcohol and Pyrotechnics are not allowed and will be confiscated on entry. We ask supporters to please help the club in this regard and refrain from attempting to get in with any prohibited items.

CCTV:

CCTV is again in operation throughout the evening using our Brand New state of the art CCTV system. Security personnel and An Garda Siochaina will be monitoring the system and anyone found to be behaving in a way which contravenes our ground rules will be removed and potentially banned from attending future games.

Car Parking:

There are limited spaces available at The Showgrounds astro turf car park. This will be closed once full, which is expected to be early in the evening. Supporters should note the club have come to an agreement with Nazareth House for official Match Night use of their grounds which has over 200 parking spaces. There is a charge of €2, with proceeds towards the upkeep of their grounds.

Flares:

Leave your flares at home. These are not wanted and anyone found with flares will be banned from attending future matches. These cause needless fines for the club, money which is raised by our volunteers and fellow supporters.

Pitch:

It is an offence to enter the field of play at any stage. This includes children. It is parent/guardian’s responsibility to ensure children do not encroach on the pitch at any time.

1983 Squad:

Members of our FAI Cup Winning 1983 squad will be in attendance at this evening’s game. We ask supporters to show your appreciation to them at half-time when they are brought onto the pitch and give them a welcome back to The Showgrounds they deserve.

Ukrainian families:

We also welcome Ukrainian families who are now living in the region to The Showgrounds for this first time this evening. There will be around 250 in attendance at the game and we ask supporters to welcome them and be understanding of this initiative throughout the game, especially in terms of seating arrangements. Only supporters who purchased a ‘Gold’ season ticket have the right to sit in your own designated seat. All other seats are for general admission.

We wish to thank all supporters for their support in recent weeks and for the atmosphere created both at home and away.

We thank you for your co-operation