By Conall Collier
Sligo Rovers Tommy Hewitt admitted that his team produced a tired looking performance against DLR Waves at the Showgrounds as they slumped to a 12th Women’s Premier Division (WPD) defeat of the season on Saturday.
The game marked his return to the sideline, following suspension, and for five of the players who finished the game it was a second outing in as many days and a third in a week following the previous Saturday’s battling display against title-chasing Galway Utd at Eamonn Deacy Park.
However, the Bit O’Red boss also accepted that a young team that features many players who are coming through the academy, that performances can vary in terms of consistency from game-to-game.
There won’t be too much time to dwell on the result against DLR as the focus will now turn to the arrival Shelbourne at the Showgrounds on Wednesday evening and that will be followed by a trip to Tallaght next Saturday.
The schedule of fixtures means that a majority of players will have lined out in five games in the space of 14 days including two midweek.
Last Tuesday night the Sligo Rovers u-19 team made the long journey to the Oscar Traynor Centre in Dublin for an Academy Cup quarter-final against Bohemian FC – Alice Lillie, Cara King, Anna McDaniel, Jessica Casey and Roise Burke all featured then and on Saturday against DLR Waves.
“I was very disappointed with the result against DLR Waves and I have to assess my own contribution to this, it looked like a very tired performance and I can understand that to a certain extent,” explained the 2022 WPD manager-of-the-year.
“And it won’t get any easier as we have three more games in the space of the next 10 days and we just have to find something a little bit extra, both from my own perspective and from the players.
“We were expected to win against DLR Waves and that’s not something that we are used to this season and we just didn’t cope well enough, that expectation won’t be there on Wednesday night against Shelbourne.
“Over the last few weeks there has been steady improvement, but we probably need to add a little bit of experience to the starting 11.
“We have also lost some very experienced players during the mid-season break and when you put all that together it leaves it a bit more difficult to find a bit of consistency on the pitch.
“I have no doubt that there will be a marked improvement against Shelbourne on Wednesday evening, I know the players will react positively and I’ll also have to try to freshen things up a little for the next two games,” he concluded.