Our Academy teams are all in action this weekend with six games taking place in total.

On Saturday afternoon, our Under 14 side host Athlone Town at our partners ATU Sligo at 1pm.

At the same time, at The Sean Fallon Centre, our Under 17 Men’s side host St. Patrick’s Athletic in the Under 17 Men’s League.

Our Under 17 Women’s side also face the Dubliners, with Darren Kelly’s side travelling to Blanchardstown for a 1pm kick-off.

Our Under 15’s are in Athlone Town Stadium to face Athlone Town at Midday, also on Saturday.

Sunday sees our Under 19 Men’s side take on Athlone Town away from home at 3pm while our Under 19 Women host Shamrock Rovers from 4.30pm at The Sean Fallon Centre.

Another Women’s FAI Cup quarter-final journey to Dalymount Park for Sligo Rovers to tackle Bohemian FC on Saturday, 3pm, writes Conall Collier.

Twelve months ago, the Bit O’Red made the same journey after they received a first-round walkover from a non-League team, this time around they negotiated another non-League team when they defeated Bonagee Utd by 11-0.

Bohemian FC also negotiated a non-League team in the first round with a 3-0 victory against Cabinteely at the Carlisle Grounds in Bray.

The Bohemian FC goals were scored by Lisa Murphy (two) and Fiona Donnelly, but the 11-0 win for the Bit O’Red sent both Casey Howe and Emma Doherty to the top of the scoring charts with five goals apiece.

Amy Hyndman scored the other goal for the Bit O’Red.

Both Doherty and Howe will be eager to stay at the top of the charts, but they will also be focused on helping Steve Feeney’s side make it to the last four of the competition.

However, the Dublin club has not lost to Sligo Rovers in six previous outings, four in 2022 and two already this season.

That type of form suggests that the Dalymount Park club will extend that run to seven by 5pm on Saturday evening.

The Dublin women enjoyed a 1-0 victory at Dalymount in May with Lisa Murphy hitting the target while at the other end Emma Doherty had a decent chance to equalise, but Rachael Kelly saved for the hosts.

Significantly, both Sarah Rowe and Erica Burke featured in that Bohemian FC victory, but will be absent this weekend.

The sides met in the Avenir Sports Cup at the Showgrounds in June and the Dublin women won that by 3-1, but it was a bizarre type of contest with a brace of first-half own goals and a penalty claim in each half waved away.

Sligo Rovers had to wait until Casey Howe converted a 92nd minute spot-kick for a consolation goal.

Both teams also lost last weekend, but the real surprise was the 5-0 victory that Athlone Town recorded against the Dublin women in what was the team’s heaviest defeat this season.

Perhaps an indication that the absence of Burke and Rowe is a major setback.

Sligo Rovers also lost last weekend when they conceded four goals without reply at Tallaght Stadium.

That was mainly a defensive performance from Sligo Rovers with very few chances created, although the Bit O’Red fashioned a couple of openings and failed to finish.

That has been an ongoing challenge for Sligo Rovers this season with a return of 11 goals in the Women’s Premier Division, a tally they matched in the FAI Cup against Bonagee Utd.

One player who will have an extra incentive to make sure the Bit O’Red progress to the last four is Emma Hansberry, twice capped for the Republic of Ireland at senior level.

Emma has also played in four FAI Cup finals and would be more than happy if she can help get the Bit O’Red across the line on Saturday at Dalymount Park.

“We’ve always had good battles with Bohs, we know that if we show up on the day and play the way we can, we can be a match for anyone,” she commented in an interview with Tony Magner that will be included in the special FAI Cup quarter-final match programme for Saturday’s game.

The game will be live on LOITV, kick-off at 3pm.

The teams will meet again in the Women’s Premier Division at the Showgrounds on Saturday, 30^th September.

Our Women’s senior team take on Bohemians on Saturday afternoon at Dalymount Park in the 1/4 Final of the Sports Direct Women’s FAI Cup.

The game takes place at 3pm and will be broadcast Live on LOI TV.

Sligo Rovers fans in the area can pay on the gates on Saturday afternoon, with tickets just €5.

All support for the team would be greatly appreciated as we look to progress to the semi-finals.

Sligo Rovers take on Derry City on Friday September 22nd at 7.45pm at The Showgrounds.

The game was originally scheduled for 7.45pm on the Saturday but was recently moved forward 24 hours.

Supporters wishing to attend the game can pay on the night on the turnstiles or in advance online via the link below:

https://srfcdirect.com/match-tickets/

Supporters wishing to attend this Saturday night’s SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division fixture between Sligo Rovers and UCD can buy their tickets online now on the club’s online store.

Tickets are available here: https://srfcdirect.com/match-tickets/

The game takes place at 7.45pm at The Showgrounds and gates will open from 6.30pm.

The Club’s 2023 Annual Draw will take place on the pitch at half-time.

Supporters can also pay on the gate on the night by cash or card.

Our Academy had five games on Saturday and Sunday with all teams in action other than our Under 19 Men’s team who had a weekend off due to International matches taking place.

On Saturday, our Under 17 Women’s team hosted Dundalk at 1pm at The Showgrounds and the girls were on the end of a narrow 1-0 defeat.

Rovers Under 14’s were in action away to Dundalk at Oriel Park and the hosts ran out 3-1 winners on the day, with Conor Whittaker’s goal proving to be only a consolation.

Finally, our Under 17 Men’s side had a good away win against Finn Harps on Saturday afternoon.

Goals from Conor Reynolds, Conor Cannon and Niall Kenny were enough to seal the three points.

Sunday saw two games take place with our Under 15 side at home to Drogheda United at The Sean Fallon Centre and our Under 19 Women’s side away to Wexford Youths.

The Under 15 game was an entertaining one with six goals shared between the teams in a 3-3 draw.

Rovers goalscorers on the day were Cead McGrath, Liam McLaughlin and Oisin Keenan.

Our Under 19 Women suffered a 4-0 defeat against a strong home side at Ferrycarrig Park.

Our 2023 Annual Draw is coming into its final week of sales, with €63,000 now raised so far by our brilliant volunteer sellers in addition to our online sales on srfcdirect.com

The draw takes place at the UCD game next Saturday night at The Showgrounds.

The top prize is €5,000 and will be won by one of our entrants who has purchased a ticket for €10.

If you can, we’d encourage you to support our draw by purchasing a ticket now online via the link below:

https://srfcdirect.com/annual-draw-ticket/

There are other top prizes such as a huge €2,500 voucher for West Coast Orthodontics in Sligo Town and a €1,000 voucher for Petstop Discount Warehouse.

Vouchers for stays at The Connaught Hotel, Clayton Hotel Liffey Valley and the Silver Tassey Hotel in Letterkenny are also up for grabs.

Corporate match tickets for a Liverpool home game at Anfield are also on offer which will be a great prize for any football fan.

There are also vouchers for Kate’s Kitchen in Sligo, Elverys Sports and Ticketmaster.

We’d like to thank all our supporters for getting behind the draw once again this year.

Ticket sellers are heading to Manorhamilton later today so if you’re about the area, your support will be appreciated.

Our Academy has a total of five games taking place this coming weekend between Saturday and Sunday.

Our Under 19 Men’s have no fixture this weekend following their 5-1 win over Derry City at The Showgrounds last Sunday.

On Saturday, at The Showgrounds, our Under 17 Womens team take on Dundalk at 1pm. The two sides met at Oriel Park at the end of July and played out an entertaining 2-2 draw.

Our Under 14’s also play Dundalk on Saturday, with kick-off at Oriel Park at 2pm. This is the start of Phase 3 of the Under 14 National League season.

Our Under 17 Men’s team are on the road to face Finn Harps at 2pm. The sides are no strangers having played against eachother twice already in 2023, with Rovers winning away from home back in May in the Under 17 Cup and playing out a 2-2 draw at home in July.

Sunday sees two games take place with our Under 15 side hosting Drogheda United at 1pm at The Sean Fallon Centre. It’s the first meeting of the sides so far this season.

Our Under 19 Women are on the road again on Sunday, following last week’s long journey to Cork is an equally long trip to Ferrycarrig Park to take on Wexford Youths at 3pm.

Last week’s 3-2 win made the journey a fruitful one and the side will be hoping to make it two wins from two in Wexford.

Sligo Rovers go to Tallaght Stadium for a first-time-outing in the Women’s Premier Division against Shamrock Rovers on Saturday, 5,30pm, writes Conall Collier.

When the Rovers clashed in the opening game of the season at The Showgrounds last March, it required a 92^nd minute goal from Aine O’ Gorman to seal a hard-earned 2-1 victory for the Dublin women..

That performance will boost the confidence of the Bit O’Red players despite only one victory so far this season in the WPD, achieved against Cork City, and they will relish the prospects of causing an upset at Tallaght Stadium.

The statistics show that it’s third from the top against second from the bottom and the formbook suggests that a home win is on the cards.

With six games remaining, the Dublin side is nine points behind, with a game in hand, title-chasing Peamount Utd and cannot afford to drop any more points.

The Bit O’Red players have displayed plenty of character and determination this season and will take many positives into the Tallaght assignment, none more so than the first-half performance of the Dublin women last week away to Cork City.

On that occasion, bottom-of-the-table Cork City went in scoreless at the interval after absorbing some intense first-half pressure while the visitors were also forced into a goalkeeper change with Amanda Budden replaced by Summer Lawless due to injury.

The Dublin side adapted hit the front early in the second-half and finished with a four-goal haul, boosted by the introduction of Aine O’Gorman.

The goals scored by Joy Ralph, Abbie Larkin, Stephanie Roche and Melissa O’Kane.

Sligo Rovers strikers Emma Doherty and Casey Howe will be eager for more goals, especially as both were unlucky with a number of efforts against Wexford last Saturday at the Showgrounds before Howe was eventually rewarded for all her hard work in the 86^th minute.

Creating chances hasn’t been a major issue for for the Sligo Rovers women and if they can be more effective in the finishing department, then they certainly have the ability to get a result at Tallaght.

After that, they will focus on another trip to Dublin the following weekend for an FAI Cup quarter-final showdown against Bohemian FC.

Our 2023 Annual Draw will take place in just 10 days, at half-time in our upcoming Men’s game at home to UCD.

The draw has now raised €54,000, with the final week or so of sales about to continue.

The draw has a top prize of €5,000 in cash and many other top prizes including a €2,500 voucher for Westcoast Orthodontics and a voucher for Petstop Discount Warehouse.

We wish to thank all our volunteer sellers who are going door to door around the region selling our €10 tickets.

You can enter now via the link below:

https://srfcdirect.com/annual-draw-ticket/