Table-toppers Shelbourne are Sligo Rovers’ opponents this Friday evening as the Bit O’Red travel to Dublin to take on Damien Duff’s side, kick off at Tolka Park 7.45pm.

Rovers will make the journey to the capital in buoyant mood after last week’s performance at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium. A game in which Rovers were unfortunate not to take all the points after Derry City twice came from behind to draw.

Sligo have already faced Shels this term. The Drumcondra outfit narrowly overcame Rovers back in March at the Showgrounds courtesy of John O’Sullivan’s 12 minute strike. 

This game is the start of a busy Bank Holiday weekend for John Russell’s side who will face Drogheda United at the Showgrounds just three days later, on Monday evening. 

In team news, Nando Pijnaker (ribs) and John Mahon (achilles) are both continuing their rehabilitation. While Simon Power remains unavailable due to a groin issue. Centre half Charlie Wiggett serves a suspension due to an accumulation of yellow cards, while both Will Fitzgerald and Ollie Denham will be assessed on Friday as they look to shake off knocks. 

Wilson Waweru also faces a late fitness test but Russell hopes to have him available for selection at Tolka. Meanwhile, Rein Smit departed the club on Wednesday following the mutual termination of his contract. 

Speaking ahead of the game, Russell said: “I thought the players responded in the right manner last week against Derry. It’s a really tough place for anyone to go at any stage of the season but our players showed a real edge to their game which resulted in a really impressive performance as we saw. 

“That fight and desire played a big part in picking up a really positive result in Derry and those attributes will be key as the season goes on and no more so than against Shelbourne who have had a really good season to date.”

“We have to keep raising our levels and continue to show that desire to keep picking up points.”  

Sligo Rovers can confirm striker Rein Smit will return to the Netherlands as he deals with personal issues.
 
Following discussions between the Bit O’ Red and Rein, an agreement has been reached to cancel Rein’s contract so he can be in the most suitable environment at home at this time.
 
Sligo Rovers firstly wish to commend Rein for his courage in engaging with the club to allow us to support him with the services available.
 
The club has prioritised Rein throughout the last number of weeks and the mutual decision today is made with our complete support.

Rein Smit said:

“I want to thank the club and the manager.

“The people of Sligo, my team-mates and the place are all wonderful. It makes it even harder to leave. But I know this is the right thing for me right now.”

Bit O’ Red manager John Russell said: “We’ve loved having Rein at the club. On behalf of the staff and everyone in The Showgrounds, we thank him for his time here and being part of our club.

“We wish him well in these next steps and he’ll have the backing of everyone in Sligo in the future.”

MATCH REPORT – WOMEN’S PREMIER DIVISION

SLIGO ROVERS 0, ATHLONE TOWN 2

BY CONALL COLLIER

Goals in each half from former player Casey Howe gave Athlone Town the Women’s Premier Division points with a 2-0 victory over hosts Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds on Saturday night.

There was a boost for Bit O’Red manager Tommy Hewitt with the return from injury of Jodie Loughrey who made her first start since she limped out of the action against Wexford at the beginning of May.

Goalkeeper Amber Hardy also returned to the starting 11 along with Kelly Crompton as that trio replaced Bonnie McKiernan, Kate Nugent and Lauren Devaney from last Sunday’s All-Island Cup game.

There was also the return of Leah Kelly from injury when she was introduced in the 78^th minute and her presence will be a major factor over the next few weeks as the Bit O’Red continue to search for a first victory of the season.

Athlone came into the game with four wins and a draw to their credit and were unbeaten since losing on the opening day of the season against Galway Utd.

Contrast that to the form of Sligo Rovers who had three three scoreless draws in the credit column and defeats by Galway, Wexford and Cork City.

The Athlone women hit the front in the eighth minute when Casey Howe finished a Roisin Molloy cross to the net and soon after Kate Slevin went close, but was denied by Amber Hardy.

Sligo Rovers began to get a grip on the game at that stage and there was a real moment of controversy on 30 minutes.

Keri Loughrey raced towards the Athlone penalty area and got a touch on the ball ahead of a Katie Keane lunge that impeded the home player, but the chance of a goal was gone.

The referee took no action and Athlone cleared the danger amidst a series of protests from the Bit O’Red players.

The exchanges after the resumption were well contested, but Athlone added a crucial second goal on 65 minutes when Casey Howe once again displayed her ability with a fine piece of finishing.

That gave Athlone the momentum to dictate for the remainder although they were pushed all the way by a determined Sligo Rovers side that had a couple of chances.

However, Jesi Lynne Rossman was a key figure in the central defence for Athlone and broke up a number of promising attacks by the hosts.

Sligo Rovers – Amber Hardy; Sarah Kiernan, Eimear Lafferty, Kelsey Monroe, Keeva Flynn, Kelly Crompton, Muireann Devaney, Katie Melly, Keri Loughrey, Alice Lillie, Jodie Loughrey. 

Subs – Jessica Casey for Melly 65 mins, Ciara Henry for Lafferty and Kate Nugent for J Loughrey both 72m, Leah Kelly for Lillie 78m.

Athlone Town – Katie Keane; Kelly Brennan, Kayleigh Shine, Shauna Brennan, Jesi Lynne Rossman, Laurie Ryan, Kate Slevin, Chloe Singleton, Casey Howe, Roisin Molloy, Madison Gibson. 

Subs – KerryAnne Browne for Molloy 65 mins, Ciara O’Neill for Slevin and Isabel Ryan for Howe both 88m.

Referee – Alan Patchell.

Assistant-referees – Paudie Hayes, Thomas Joyce.

Fourth Official – Emmett Dynan.

Derry City 2 – 2 Sligo Rovers

Sligo Rovers picked up an impressive and wholly deserved point from the Ryan McBride Brandywell, as the Bit O’Red drew two goals a piece with Derry City. 

The Candystripes had to twice come from behind to claim the point. Michael Duffy answered Reece Hutchinson’s opener and although Niall Morahan had Rovers ahead again in the second half following a quality finish from the edge of the box, City managed to claim a point courtesy of a controversial Will Patching penalty. 

Without a handful of first team players due to injury, Rovers really impressed in the opening half. 

Hutchinson’s opener on 18 minutes totally caught out Derry keeper Brian Maher as the full back’s dinked effort from the end line floated over the net minder’s head and into the far corner. 

Rovers goalkeeper Ed McGinty pulled off a number of sensational saves in this one. His first coming soon after Rovers’ opener as McGinty kept a well struck shot from Duffy out with his legs.

The Candystripes made three subs at half-time in an effort to try and take hold of this game.

Some brave defending and more super stops from McGinty kept the home side at bay for the majority. Although Derry did level the game six minute after the re-start when Duffy scored from close range.

Derry did squander a number of decent opportunities before Morahan put Rovers back in the driving seat 67 minutes. The Leitrim man making the very most of a Maher mishap before flashing the ball into the corner of Maher’s net. 

Rovers held out until the 83rd minute when Paul McMullen fell to ground very easily inside McGinty’s box, after Hutchinson was unable to control a ball forward from the Derry rearguard. Patching slotted home the subsequent spot kick. 

McGinty preserved a much deserved point at the death when he somehow kept out Shane McEleney’s close range header. 

Derry City: Brian Maher, Ronan Boyce (Cameron Dummigan HT), Shane McEleney, Sam Todd (Cameron McJannet HT), Ben Doherty (Daniel Mullen 74); Sadou Diallo (Patrick McEleney HT); Adam O’Reilly, Will Patching; Paul McMullan, Pat Hoban, Michael Duffy.

Sligo Rovers: Ed McGinty, John Wilson, Reece Hutchinson, Ellis Chapman, Charlie Wiggett, NIall Morahan, Fabrice Hartmann (Owen Elding 75), Stefan Radosavljevic, Conor Malley, Kailin Barlow, Conor Reynolds (Rein Smit 75).

Referee: Rob Hennessy.

The Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium is Sligo Rovers’ destination this Friday evening, as the Bit O’Red travel to face Derry City in the Premier Division, kick-off 7.45pm.

This will be the second time the teams will have met this season, following a scoreless draw between the sides at the Showgrounds in late February. 

In team news, Rovers will be without central defensive pair John Mahon (achilles) and Nando Pijnaker (ribs), while wingers Simon Power (groin) and Will Fitzgerald (foot) will also sit this one out.

Ollie Denham, Wilson Waweru and Owen Elding will be assessed before kick-off as they each look to shake off respective knocks.   

Speaking ahead of the game in Derry, Rovers boss John Russell said he’s looking for a reaction from last Friday’s defeat to Bohs in Sligo: 

“We were very disappointed with our performance last week against Bohs”, he said. “We all sat down during the week and reviewed the game and to be honest, there were some hard truths.

“Yes, we are down bodies at the moment with so many injuries but that was no excuse for the performance against Bohs. I and the staff are looking for a big reaction from the players. We still have a lot of quality in the squad and in whatever team we send out on Friday against Derry. I want to see the fight and desire necessary to pick up points in this league.”  

BY JIM GRAY

A recent report on the FAI’s Academy system made for grim reading. The country has 24 soccer academies but only ten full-time staff to govern them. In Portugal, by comparison, there are only seven academies but 315 full-time academy staff. No wonder the number of young Irish players coming through at major professional clubs has been in sharp decline over recent years. Only sustained government and FAI funding can help remedy what has become a genuine crisis, but given the continuing disarray of the football administration here, such investment is unlikely to materialise anytime soon.

Sligo Rovers is one of the ten clubs with a full-time academy director, and despite the obvious flaws in an underfunded system, Conor O’Grady remains optimistic, though not blind to the reality of the situation.

“The lack of funding and facilities is scary,” he agrees. “Major investment is required if we’re realistic about the development of young players.

“In our case, almost all of our academy coaches are volunteers. They give up two nights a week for training and possibly a full day for a game at weekends. How long can that continue? How much more can we demand from coaches who are doing the best they can for no pay? And it’s much the same at all League of Ireland clubs.

“Our underage teams train twice a week because it would be grossly unfair to demand more from our coaches. But the reality is that some teams in the local youth leagues get more coaching. That can’t be sustained in the long-term.

“But we get on with it. We have six academy teams and standards are improving all the time. We’ve produced numerous players for both the men’s and women’s first teams and for other teams around the country. Imagine what we could do with proper investment.”

Notwithstanding the limited resources, under O’Grady’s leadership, the academy coaches have done a terrific job in fostering and nurturing young

talent. The evidence is visible in the number of academy graduates who have flourished at senior level ever since the club’s first under-19 team, under the guidance of Ciaran Kelly and Gavin Dykes, produced gems such as Regan Donelon, Gary Boylan and Scott Lynch. The initial under-17 team unearthed the likes of John Mahon, Ed McGinty, Jack Keaney, Liam Kerrigan, Niall Morahan and Luke McNicholas. Later still, O’Grady was in charge of an under-15 team which nurtured an exciting crop of A-listers such as Kailin Barlow, Killian Heaney and Johnny Kenny.

Add in the likes of Sean McAteer, Owen Elding, Daire Patton, Conor Reynolds and Kyle McDonagh, currently on the fringes of the first team, and you get a flavour of the ongoing success. Mikey Place (Ballymena), Peter Maguire (Ballinamallard), Paul Doyle (Dundalk), Ruari Keating (St. Pats), Niall Holahan and Eanna Clancy (UCD), Jack Keaney (Drogheda), Mark Byrne (Treaty United), Darragh McCarthy (Kerry F.C) and Conor Walsh (Finn Harps) are illustrations of how other clubs are benefiting from Rovers’ development work.

The women’s academy teams, under-17s and under-19s, have been equally productive. Graduates currently in the club’s senior women’s squad include Sarah Kiernan, Kate Nugent, Ciara Henry, Kelsey Munroe, Muireann Devaney, Kerri O’Hara, Cara King, Keeva Flynn and Alice Lillie.

Girls who’ve gone on to play for other senior clubs include Roisin Molloy, currently starring for Athlone Town; Abegayle Ronanye, formerly of Galway United; and the former Peamount player, Kate O’Dowd.

For Conor O’Grady, being head of the Rovers’ Academy is more than a job; it’s a vocation of near religious fervour. The club has been part of his life since boyhood, when he’d hop over the fence of his grandmother’s Tracey Avenue home to watch his heroes. But his qualifications for the job run much deeper than mere sentiment. He’s played more than 250 senior games for the club. He’s a League Cup and FAI Cup winner, whose knowledge of the game was further developed during spells at Cork City, Derry City, Finn Harps and Ballinamallard.

O’Grady is quick to acknowledge the work done by local youth clubs in developing young players before they reach the Showgrounds squads.

“The local clubs do a terrific job. One of the first things I did when I got the Academy job was to meet with the Sligo/Leitrim Youth Committee, and the co-operation from day one has been fantastic. That’s not always the case in other counties, where there are sometimes complaints if the senior clubs recruit

young players. Here, it’s seen as an honour if a young girl or boy joins Rovers, and that’s how it should be. We’re giving talented young players something to aim for—the chance to play in the League of Ireland national leagues. It couldn’t happen without the co-operation of the local clubs. They’re a vital cog in the development wheel,” he asserts.

At the other end of the spectrum, when those raw young recruits have developed to the stage where first-team football becomes a possibility, it’s O’Grady’s job to advocate for his charges.

“My job here is to get as many players as possible into the first team. It’s as simple as that. I’m their advocate. I’ll be the one knocking on John Russell’s or Tommy Hewitt’s door, and in fairness, in recent years there has been a great willingness from the senior managers to give young boys and girls a chance. We’ve reached the stage where we can promise players that if they’re good enough and work hard enough, then their chance will come. There’s plenty of evidence in the current senior squads and in previous years to suggest we keep to that promise,” he says.

He candidly admits that the development of young players to a point where they can attract the attention of bigger clubs is also a target of the academy, and he believes the opportunities for talented youngsters have never been better.

“The club invests heavily in the academy, so it makes sense to bring in revenue if the chance of a transfer of a young player presents itself,” he maintains. “We have a good reputation here, so scouts are always watching. The exposure young players get has never been greater. Technology, the internet, and online streaming all increase access for scouts. In the old days, scouts were based mainly in Dublin, but now that all of the bigger clubs have access to all our games, they don’t need to be physically present. And, because of Brexit, the big European clubs are now beginning to look towards Ireland. In that sense, young players are in the shop window like never before, and we would never stand in the way of any young player who gets an opportunity to further his or her career.”

In keeping with the club’s stated objective to be a regional club for the North West and beyond, the Academy stretches its net far and wide in search of the best emerging talent. Currently, in the six academy teams, there are players from Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim, and Fermanagh, as well as Sligo.

“I think the club has long ceased to be just a parochial football team. We have the facilities here, the ambition, great management on and off the pitch, six academy teams producing top players, and ambitious plans for the future. We are now a proper football club in every respect,” O’Grady maintains.

But none of that happens without massive behind-the-scenes work and commitment, the level of which even took O’Grady by surprise.

“I’ve been in football all my life, but until I started this job, I honestly never fully realised the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. It’s been an eye-opener for me. I see firsthand the commitment of the coaches, who work all hours, day and night, the sacrifices parents make, and the loyalty and graft of the young players. It’s great to be in the Showgrounds when a young fella or a young girl gets a big ovation from the supporters, and that’s when it hits me how much work has gone into getting that young player to this stage.

“For me, its 24/7, relentless. But I love every minute of it. There’s a bit of Sligo Rovers in my blood, so, in that sense, it’s the dream job. I’m not saying we get everything right; it’s not perfect, but we strive to make it that way day in and day out. The payoff for all of us involved is to see the young kids come through, fulfilling their dreams. And, equally important for me, is that we maintain a good relationship with all the players who come through the academy and go on to do other things in life. There’s great satisfaction in that, too,” he explains.

AVENIR SPORTS CUP

SLIGO ROVERS 1, GLENTORAN WOMEN 5

MATCH REPORT BY CONALL COLLIER

Sligo Rovers completed their Avenir Sports All-Island Cup Group campaign with a disappointing defeat against Glentoran Women at the Showgrounds on Sunday evening.

Both teams were chasing a first win in the Group after defeats by already qualified Galway Utd and Athlone Town and it was Glentoran that proved too strong for the Bit O’Red and were well worth a merited victory.

The hosts were well in the game in the opening half and levelled close to the interval, but then conceded a lead goal to Glentoran in the 44^th minute to trail (1-2) at half-time.

It was all Glentoran in the second-half with the exception of chances for Muireann Devaney on 57 minutes and Keeva Flynn soon after.

The Bit O’Red featured three changes from the scoreless Women’s Premier Division draw against Bohemian FC seven days earlier with Alice Lillie, Kate Nugent and Lauren Devaney coming into the starting 11 for Zoe McGlynn, Amy Roddy and Cara King.

Glentoran dominated the opening exchanges and missed a gilt-edged opportunity as early as the fifth minute when Demi Vance was wide from inside the six-yard box.

However, Glentoran kept probing and passing the ball around confidently and were rewarded in the 18^th minute when Kerry Beattire finished at the far post after a Vance effort was blocked and bounced kindly for the visitors.

Sligo Rovers worked hard in an effort to get into the game and Katie Melly went close in the 35^th minute, but her effort was cleared for a corner.

The hosts continued to press and a quick break gave Sarah Kiernan some space and her flick was finished to the net by Muireann Devaney who won a race for possession with Glentoran netminder Ashleigh McKinnion in the 42^nd minute.

Parity didn’t last too long and defensive frailty paved the way for Glentoran to lead at the break when Kelly Bailey capitalised after a cross wasn’t cleared and that was sufficient for a 2-1 interval advantage.

Vance claimed her second goal on the hour with an opportunist finish and Glentoran continued to press and were rewarded with further goals from Chloe McCarron in the 76^th minute and Joely Andrews five minutes from full-time.

Sligo Rovers – Bonnie McKiernan; Sarah Kiernan, Kelsey Munroe, Keeva Flynn, Kate Nugent, Eimear Lafferty, Muireann Devaney, Katie Melly, Keri Loughrey, Alice Lillie, Lauren Devaney.

Subs – Ciara Henry for Nugent and Cara King for L Devaney both half-time; Leah Kelly for Loughrey and Rebecca Doddy for Melly both 65 mins, Amy Roddy for Munroe

Glentoran – Ashleigh McKinnon; Jessica Foy, Nadene Caldwell, Demi Vance, Emily Wilson, Aimee Neal, Joely Andrews, Kerry Beattie, Kelly Bailie, Jenna McKearney, Chloe McCarron. 

Subs – Rachel Rogan for Neal 64 mins, Sofie Keenan for McKearney, Aimee Kerr for Caldwell and Rachel McIntyre for Wilson all 74m Kascie Weir for Beattie 82m.

Referee – Ryan Maher

Assistant-referees – Wayne McDonnell, Darragh Keegan.

Fourth official – Richard Storey.