St Patrick’s Athletic scored a late, late injury time winner as Sligo Rovers’ Premier Division winning run came to an end at Richmond Park in controversial circumstances. 

A stunning, long range strike from Connor Malley had Rovers in the lead on 22 minutes, before former Red Aidan Keena levelled the game from the penalty spot four minutes later, after the Saints were awarded a dubious spot-kick. 

Rovers went ahead again shortly after the break when Ellis Chapman nodded Will Fitzgerald’s cross past Pat’s net minder Joseph Anang.Brandon Kavanagh restored parity on 65 minutes with a strike from distance. 

Both sides struck the other’s woodwork in the lead up to a dramatic finish. 

The Bit O’Red looked like they would take a well earned point from Dublin, before referee Rob Hennessy decided he had spotted an infringement between Chapman and Pat’s Luke Turner who seemed to throw himself to the floor inside Ed McGinty’s penalty area.

Kavanagh slotted home from the spot in the ninth of five added minutes, to see Rovers beaten for the first time in five games in all competitions.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Joseph Anang; Axel Sjoberg, Joe Redmond, Luke Turner, Al-Amin Kazeem (Anto Breslin 60); Chris Forrester (Mason Melia 67), Jamie Lennon; Kian Leavy, Romal Palmer (Brandon Kavanagh 60), Jake Mulraney (Aaron Bolger 77); Aidan Keena (Zack Elbousedi 67).

Sligo Rovers: Ed McGinty; John Ross Wilson, Oliver Denham, Nando Pijnaker, Reece Hutchinson; Niall Morahan (Jack Henry-Francis 86); Stephen Mallon (Owen Elding 86), Ellis Chapman, Connor Malley (Kailin Barlow 90+7), Will Fitzgerald; Wilson Waweru (Luke Pearce 77).

Referee: Rob Hennessy.

MATCH REPORT WFAI CUP

BY CONALL COLLIER

SLIGO ROVERS 5-0 TERENURE RANGERS

Sligo Rovers negotiated the challenge of Terenure Rangers in the first round of the Women’s FAI Cup at the Showgrounds on Saturday with a five-goal salvo that gave Tommy Hewitt’s side a first competitive win of the season.

First-half goals from Paula McGrory (two) were augmented by further strikes from Jodie and Keri Loughrey and Rebecca Doddy after the break to seal a comprehensive win.

The formbook indicated that this was the best team outside the League of Ireland against the bottom side in the Women’s Premier Division (WPD).

Terenure Rangers came into the game on the back of an impressive 2-1 victory six days earlier in the final of the FAI Amateur Cup against Whitehall Rangers as they retained the trophy won 12 months earlier.

Sligo Rovers kicked-off without a competitive win in either the WPD this season or the Avenir Sports All-Island Cup.

Last season the Dublin women faced Cork City in the competition, but lost out in that encounter at Richmond Park while Sligo Rovers made it to the last four where they exited against eventual winners, Athlone Town.

Sligo Rovers dominated the opening half, but squandered a number of early chances before Paula McGrory broke the deadlock with a fine finish on 20 minutes.

Soon after McGrory was narrowly wide following a good cross from Leah Kelly, but then the Bit O’Red displayed some complacency for a brief spell and were fortunate to keep the lead intact when Yvonne Hedigan had to scramble the ball off the line.

The chance for Terenure was created more by poor defensive play by the hosts who were extremely relieved not to concede an equaliser although Sarah Ryan and Caroline Thorpe were a constant threat for the Dublin women.

However, that reprieve appeared to spark the hosts into action and following a sustained period of pressure a claim for a penalty was waved away by the referee.

The official stopped play to allow Leah Kelly receive some attention in the Terenure penalty area and the hosts then finished the half on a high when McGrory made space and finished to the net for a 2-0 interval advantage.

Terenure resumed smartly for the second-half and Sarah Ryan had an excellent chance to reduce the deficit in the 47^th minute, but was wide of the target. The same player had a couple of other chances for Terenure, but despite her best efforts was unable to find the net.

The Bit O’Red remained in the ascendancy and added a third goal with a superb Jodie Loughrey effort after Paula McGrory’s persistence to keep the ball in play was rewarded and Keri Loughrey made it 4-0 with a lob from about 30 metres following a quick counter attack.

Substitute Katie Melly was denied by the post on 72 minutes soon after Rebecca Doddy and Mairead McIntyre combined to create an opening.

Terenure substitute goalkeeper Liv Torfeldt had a hectic final seven minutes during which she made some spectacular saves, but she was beaten in the 90^th minute when Doddy finished from close range to make it 5-0 for the hosts.

Sligo Rovers – Amber Hardy; Yvonne Hedigan, Keeva Flynn, Kelsey Munroe, Sarah Kiernan, Alice Lillie, Keri Loughrey, Leah Kelly, Jodie Loughrey, Paula McGrory, Mairead McIntyre. 

Subs – Kate Nugent for Hedigan and Rachel McGOldrick for Kiernan both half-time, Rebecca Doddy for Kelly and Cara King for Munroe both 60 mins, Katie Melly for McGrory 72m

Terenure Rangers – Niamh Geraghty; Leanne Dicker, Niamh O’Donoghue, Jessica Hunt, Kerri Duffy, Caroline Thorpe, Linda Douglas, Niamh Carroll, Sarah Ryan, Caroline Healy, Melissa Haughton. 

Subs – Lydia Kavanagh for Carroll 64 mins, Louise Gleeson for Healy 72m, Anna McGilacuddy for O’Donoghue and Liv Torfeldt for Geraghty both 83m

Referee – Robert Dowling

Assistant-referees – Darren Corcoran, Keenan Deering.

Fourth Official – Richard Storey.

By Conall Collier

Sligo Rovers will seek a place in the quarter-finals of the Women’s FAI Cup this Saturday as they host Dublin’s Terenure Rangers at the Showgrounds, with kick-off at 3pm.

Terenure Rangers arrive with strong confidence following their 2-1 victory in the Women’s FAI Amateur Cup final last Sunday, where they defeated Whitehall Rangers at the Belfield Bowl. This win secured back-to-back cup triumphs for Terenure, making them the first team to retain the trophy.

Sligo Rovers made a solid start at this stage of the competition last season with a comfortable win over Donegal’s Bonagee Utd at the Showgrounds. Conversely, Terenure’s 5-0 defeat to Cork City in the same round last year at Richmond Park was somewhat misleading, as Cork City scored the final three goals late in the game.

Terenure enters this match in excellent form, having secured victories over Home Farm (4-0), Marks Celtic (11-1), Killester/Donnycarney (4-2), and Douglas Hall (6-2) leading up to their recent cup win.

Terenure manager Caroline Kelly and her team—Paula Hamilton, Robert Fitzgerald, Alan Moore, and Ciara Smith—have carefully reviewed Sligo Rovers’ recent performances against Peamount Utd and Bohemian FC. Despite making five enforced changes in their last match, Sligo Rovers will benefit from the return of key players like Yvonne Hedigan and Keeva Flynn, which could strengthen their defence.

Although Sligo Rovers have struggled with scoring this season, they have consistently created chances. Facing a team from outside the Women’s Premier Division might be the catalyst they need for their first win of the season.

With Terenure Rangers in impressive form and aiming for victory, an exciting and closely contested 90 minutes is expected at the Showgrounds.

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Pictured at the recent special draw of Sligo Rovers 500 club were (L-R): Sean Crossan Draw committee, Cathaoirleach Cllr Declan Bree, Tony Quinn, Draw committee, Tommy Higgins, Rovers Chairman, Vincent Nally, Chair Draw Committee, Peter Henry, Draw Committee, Robbie Fitzpatrick, event MC.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION TO MARK MILESTONE ACHIEVEMENT

Sligo Rovers has long been showcased as a model community club, and one aspect of the club’s administration illustrates this beyond any doubt. Since it was established in 2003, the Friends of Sligo Rovers 500 Club has raised €2m for Sligo Rovers, and this hugely impressive milestone was marked by a special draw at the recent friendly match against Everton.

At half time at that fixture, 500 Club Draw Chairman Vincent Nally presented a cheque of €50,000 to Sligo Rovers, which brought the total raised for the club for Sligo Rovers by 500 Club members to €2 million.

A special draw was held pitch-side at half-time. With the Cathaoirleach of Sligo County Council Councillor Declan Bree in attendance, two lucky members won €1,000 each, Stephen Gilroy from Tonaphubble and William Gaffney from Ardaghowen. Vincent also made a presentation to the founding members of the 500 Club, Peter Henry and Tony Quinn.

Draw Chairman Vincent Nally said ‘It was the vision and spirit of the late Brendan Byrne along with Tony Quinn and Peter Henry that laid the foundations for the draw, and their work continues to the present day by our current team of volunteers’.

Rovers Chairman Tommy Higgins said the importance of the 500 Club to Sligo Rovers was immeasurable. “As a community owned club, we are totally reliant on the loyalty and generosity of our supporters, and we simply would not survive without the core fundraisers; The 500 Club, Weekly lotto and annual draw. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Vincent Nally and his team for their invaluable contribution over many years.’

An important feature of the Draw is its generosity, over the years 2,370 draw winners have shared almost €300,000 in prize money. Without any major benefactor, Sligo Rovers is reliant on its supporters, local community and teams of volunteers, and their loyalty lies at the heart of the enduring success of the draw.

The 500 club welcome new members, to join, simply fill out the contact form using the link below.

https://www.sligorovers.com/500-club/

In the first of an occasional series highlighting some of our local legends, Jim Gray chats with David Pugh to reflect on an iconic career.

By Jim Gray

David Pugh is one of Sligo soccer’s most iconic heroes. A local centre-half who joined Rovers from the junior soccer ranks, he is generally regarded as one of the best players ever to wear the bit’o’red and, indeed, one of the greatest of all time League of Ireland performers. He also managed Rovers on two separate occasions.

 His remarkable career included an FAI Cup winner’ medal with Shamrock Rovers in 1969 and a successful spell in the fledgling American soccer leagues. But his best years were spent as an inspirational skipper with his home-town club, during which he was honoured with the captaincy of the Irish under-23 team. A master of many trades, David also played senior Gaelic football for Sligo; was an international basketball player; an accomplished rally driver, and a top amateur golfer. He was offered the chance to play professional football, but turned down opportunities to join both Celtic and Chelsea.

In a strange twist of fate, the man associated with great soccer moments also made GAA history. When the GAA finally kicked to touch its infamous ban on ‘foreign’ sports, he was among the first soccer players in the country to play in a provincial football final, alongside another Rovers favourite, Gerry Mitchell.  For good measure, he captained an Irish under-23 international team where most of the players were cross-channel professionals. He drove a lightning- fast car at break-neck speeds at motor rallies all over the country. He played in three West of Ireland golf championships off an eye-watering three handicap. He won a Sigerson Cup and played basketball for Ireland. 

His love of sport manifested early and he was always a dual player: “We weren’t allowed play soccer in school, so it was Gaelic football in St. John’s School in Temple Street and soccer in the nun’s field, where the Cranmore housing estate was later established,” he recalls.

Later in life, those fields of dreams would become the Showgrounds and Croke Park and countless other sports arenas, but the odd thing about a lad with such awesome ability was that his natural gifts were never matched by extravagant ambition. On the pitch, he was an unbeatable goliath, but outside the sidelines there reigned a shy and introverted youngster.

He vividly recalls ‘shaking like a leaf’ in his early days in the Rovers dressing rooms. On one occasion the club’s wily trainer, James Tiernan, offered him a plastic bag into which he could spill his nerves and told him he’d be ok once the game started.  He was right. The young center-half had a blinder.

Perhaps it was that inherent shyness which influenced his decision not to join Celtic as a teenager and, some years later, to reject Chelsea’s advances. But there are no regrets.

The Celtic offer came after a month-long trial arranged by Sean Fallon when Pugh was a fourth-year student at Summerhill College. Chelsea’s approach came following a successful season with Boston Beacons in 1968.

“At Celtic, I was just a kid. I looked around at the great players they had, people like Billy McNeill and Paddy Crerand, and I decided I didn’t belong there. I asked myself what am I doing here. They asked me to sign and without hesitation I said no. Looking back, it was probably a lack of self-belief.

“With Chelsea, it was a more mature decision. I was a grown man with plenty of experience behind me. It was at the end of the season with Boston Beacons, and the manager, Jack Mansell, told me he could lift the phone and have me at Chelsea in the morning. I told him ‘I don’t think so’. He was flabbergasted, but it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t want that lifestyle.”

Instead, his Boston room-mate, Paddy Mulligan signed for Chelsea and enjoyed a prolonged career in the English First Division and with Ireland.

All Pugh ever wanted was play for Sligo Rovers. His uncle, Ray Foley, had brought him to the Showgrounds every Sunday and soon he was caught up in the frenzy which envelopes almost every Sligo town child who ever kicked a ball. As a teenager, he played for Collegians in the junior league and was good enough to win an Irish junior cap. It was only a matter of time before the senior club came calling, but it was an inauspicious start.

Rovers had just returned to senior football in 1963 after a year’s absence and their ‘new’ team was a mixture of Dublin based veterans and untried locals, but the Sligo lads were very often at the back of the queue when it came to selection. 

Pugh recalls: “I was all set for my debut, togged out in the dressing room, nervous but excited. My dad, uncles, brothers all there to see me play for Rovers, a big day for the family. Then, shortly before kick-off, the manager arrives in with a few Dublin lads off the train. ‘You won’t be needed today’, he tells me. I was absolutely devastated, heartbroken, but that’s the way it was in those days. Locals would get one game and never be heard of again once there were enough Dubs to fill the shirts. I was determined from very early on that it wouldn’t happen to me, and once I got my chance I made sure they couldn’t shift me.”

Regularly picked for inter-league teams in the following years, his stock rose significantly when he was selected to captain a star-studded under-23 international team against France at Dalymount Park in 1966.

At the start of the 68/69 season, he joined a Shamrock Rovers team laden with talent, and he slotted in comfortably alongside some of the greatest players ever to grace the league under the expert management of the legendary Liam Tuohy. A memorable season with the Hoops was capped by the club’s record-breaking sixth successive FAI Cup victory, with Pugh becoming only the second Sligoman ever to win a cup medal.

The following season he was back with his hometown club and back in an FAI Cup final, as Rovers reached the decider for the first time in 30 years. A three-game marathon was eventually won by Bohemians. In the second replay, following a collision with fellow defender, Kevin Fallon, Pugh finished the game concussed and confused. It would be two hours after the game before he realized the result had gone against Rovers.

One of the better days, however, was when he got the chance to share a field with the fabulous Pele, winner of three World Cup medals and acknowledged as the best player in the world. Pugh was midway through a one-year contract with Boston Beacons, who faced Pele’s club, Santos, in an exhibition game. 

It still feels slightly surreal: “I was casually told ‘you pick up Pele’, and I thought ‘yeah, no problem’. Just to be on the same pitch was such a thrill. All of the Santos players were Brazilian internationals, fabulous players. I would have paid in to see them and here I was on the same pitch, trying to keep Pele quiet. I actually won a few headers from him, but even to get close to him was hard enough. 

“The one regret is that I didn’t get his shirt. Our manager ran on after the match and grabbed it. I’ve never forgiven him for that.”

When the GAA voted to abolish the ban on foreign games – ironically Sligo was one of only two counties who objected – another intriguing chapter opened up for Pugh. A talented if under-utilised Gaelic footballer, he had won a Sigerson Cup with St. Joseph’s College, Belfast, where he was doing his PE teacher training, scoring a spectacular goal in the final at Croke Park. Sligo manager, Brendan McCauley, invited Pugh and his Rovers pal, Gerry Mitchell, to join the county panel in 1971. They reached the Connacht final, losing out to Galway after a replay, in which Pugh scored a goal with a bullet-like shot from a 14-yards free.

Later in his career, he would serve as Rovers manager for two separate spells, while more tangible success as a coach came during his 28 years as a PE teacher at Summerhill College, where his teams won 18 Connacht titles and five All-Irelands. More than a dozen of his proteges went on to play in the League of Ireland and further afield.

As he reflects on an amazing sporting life well lived, Pugh has only one lingering regret

“I’ve been very lucky. As a young child, I could never have imagined I’d get to do so much in so many different sports, and I’m thankful for all of that. But, if I could change one thing, it would be to have won something with Sligo Rovers.  That would have been the pinnacle.”

*This article contains extracts from the book: LOCAL HEROES: A CELEBRATION OF SLIGO SPORT by Jim Gray and Leo Gray.

Sligo Rovers jumped into fourth spot in the Premier Division after goals from Wilson Waweru and Luke Pearce on his league debut, saw the Bit O’Red beat neighbours Galway United at the Showgrounds. 

Waweru fired home a glorious first half volley to give Rovers the lead in this Connacht derby and despite United throwing everything at it, Rovers stood their ground before securing the spoils in injury time at the end of the game courtesy of Pearce whilst also keeping their tenth league clean sheet of the season. 

Seeking their first win league win in Sligo since early 1996, it was a high-pressing Galway who bossed this meeting of the provincial neighbours in the very early stages. 

Featuring six former Sligo players in their match day squad, the visitors went close through an Ed McCarthy first time volley from the edge of the area three minutes in. While Rovers goalkeeper Ed McGinty had to shift his weight in time to catch an opportunistic Stephen Walsh header on nine minutes. 

Chasing a fifth win in a row on all fronts, Rovers settled into this game and came up with the best of the chances for the remainder of the half. 

Ellis Chapman struck Brendan Clarke’s crossbar with a header from an Ollie Denham flick-on just short of the quarter hour. While there was a quick Sligo counter on 17 minutes when Simon Power’s header bounced narrowly wide of the target after a sharp Rovers attack made its way diagonally across the pitch through Waweru and Malley. 

Waweru struck his fifth in three games just past the half hour. The former Galway man struck a perfectly caught, first-time volley from the edge of the box which left Clarke rooted to the spot.

The hosts should have doubled their tally seven minutes from the interval, but Chapman fluffed his lines whilst one-on-one with Clarke. 

The First Division champions started the second period as the first, pushing Sligo back although to no avail despite plenty of possession. Karl O’Sullivan, another ex-Rovers man fired over from 18 yards, the closest Galway came to leveling proceedings at that stage of the contest. 

McGinty pulled off a smart, one-handed save from a Patrick Hickey header 12 minutes from time to keep the home side in the lead. Indeed, Sligo might have settled the game 90 seconds later but net-minder Clarke closed down substitute Pearce at the edge of his own area to keep out the league debutant. 

The Cardiff loanee was not to be denied in the fifth minute of added time when slotted past Clarke from the angle.   

Sligo Rovers: Ed McGinty; Charlie Wiggett (Jack Henry-Francis 65), Nando Pijanker, Ollie Denham, Reece Hutchinson; Niall Morahan, Connor Malley, Ellis Chapman; Will Fitzgerald, Simon Power (Owen Elding 69); Wilson Waweru (Luke Pearce 79). 

Galway United: Brendan Clarke; Jeannot Essua (Junior 82), Killian Brouder, Garry Buckley, Robert Burns (Greg Cunningham 71); Jimmy Keohane, Conor McCormack (David Hurley 82); Karl O’Sullivan (Vincent Borden 54), Ed McCarthy (Francely Lomboto 71); Stephen Walsh, Patrick Hickey. 

Referee: Gavin Colfer. 

Attendance: 2,976

David Goulden