Our Academy will play five fixtures this weekend across Saturday and Sunday with all but one team playing away from home.

First up, on Saturday – our Under 17 Women’s team play Drogheda United at Weaver’s Park at 1pm.

Our Under 17 Men’s team are in Athlone to take on Athlone Town at 3pm.

Sunday sees three games with our Under 15 side away to Longford Town at Noon followed by at 3pm kick-off against the same opposition at the same venue for our Men’s Under 19 side.

Our Women’s Under 19’s host Peamount United at 4.30pm at The Sean Fallon Centre.

Sligo Rovers return to action on Saturday with a trip to Athlone Town as the Women’s Premier Division  (WPD) resumes after the World Cup mid-season break with the Avenir Sports Cup filling the void in June and July, writes Conall Collier.

The Sligo Rovers players performed with enthusiasm and determination in the Avenir Sports Cup and will be looking for a morale-boosting display against Athlone in the build up to the FAI Cup quarter-final tie at the Showgrounds the following Sunday, 27th August against Bonagee Utd.

Another target will be to put some points on the board as both Cork City (bottom of the table) and Treaty Utd (four points ahead of Sligo Rovers) have displayed improved form in the All-Island Cup competition.

“There are lots of positives that we can take out of the first part of the season and we can now focus on those and hopefully push on when the action resumes against Athlone Town and then there is the FAI Cup the following weekend against Bonagee Utd,” stated Bit O’Red manager Steve Feeney.

“It’s not all that different this season to last season, the bottom three – ourselves, Cork and Treaty, then there is a mid-table group and a top four group. Our immediate target now has to be to finish above Cork and Treaty,” he added.

For Athlone Town, it has been a disappointing campaign so far in which the achievements of last season have been somewhat diluted.

Currently sitting in seventh place, they will be eager to move up the table and will be looking to repeat the performance this Saturday that gave them a 3-1 victory at the Showgrounds last April.

Madison Gibson, Roisin Molloy and Gillian Keenan scored for the Athlone women on that occasion with Casey Howe finding the net for Sligo Rovers.

Athlone Town’s last game in the WPD was on Saturday 3rd June, an away loss to Peamount Utd while Sligo Rovers lost to Galway Utd on Saturday 10th June.

Three games apiece followed in the Avenir Sports All-Island Cup which saw Athlone with a new manager, Ciaran Kilduff, on the sideline for a 2-1 win against Linfield in the final group game.

Also in the Avenir Cup, Sligo Rovers earned a 1-1 draw at Solitude against eventual beaten finalists Cliftonville in the final group game.

In the lead up to the resumption of the season, each side has eight games remaining, both managers have had to go through a type of pre-season scenario as players returned to training and a number of friendlies arranged.

Athlone Town recorded a 2-1 win against Peamount while Sligo Rovers made the tip to Limerick for a game against Treaty Utd which the hosts won by 3-2.

New players also feature for each side with Athlone recruiting goalkeeper Katherine Hess who played for the USA u-18 team. Other players from the USA include defender Jesi Rossman, Lauren Karabin and Carly Wetzel while closer to home, Katie Keane, a goalkeeper from Shelbourne who played against Athlone in the Avenir Cup this year has also signed.

There are some new faces for Sligo Rovers as well with manager Steve Feeney adding to his panel with goalkeeper Caoimhe O’Reilly and Donegal woman Eimear Lafferty.

Castlebar native Caoimhe O’Reilly played in the Women’s League previously with Peamount Utd, Castlebar Celtic and UCD Waves before making the move to the UK where she played with Watford, Enfield Town and Hounslow.

Eimear Lafferty also played with UCD Waves and Peamount in the past, but more recently with Derry City.

The new players will bolster the squad for the remainder of the season as will the return of Kerri O’Hara who has recovered from injury.

That trio will be in contention for starting places against Athlone, but Keeva Scanlon will miss the remainder of the season through injury.

Kick-off in Athlone on Saturday is at 7pm and the game is on LOITV.

Sligo Rovers are delighted to announce the signing of Eimear Lafferty until the end of the 2023 Women’s Premier Division season.

The 27-year-old joins up with the rest of the Rovers Womens squad ahead of the game against Athlone Town tomorrow evening as the League resumes following a break for the World Cup.

The Donegal native, who represented Ireland at school’s level for Moville Community College will add quality to Steve Feeney’s team for the run in of the Women’s Premier Division as well as our upcoming FAI Women’s Cup run, which starts here at The Showgrounds a week on Sunday against Bonagee United.

Feeney is thrilled with his latest addition:

”I am really pleased to bring Eimear to the Club.

”She brings good experience and some really good quality which will help us between now and the end of the season.

”We are looking forward to working with her and seeing her make her Sligo Rovers debut soon”.

Rovers play Athlone Town away from home tomorrow evening (Saturday) at 7pm.

Lafferty could make her debut in the game which is Live on LOI TV.

Lafferty is thrilled to join Rovers today:

”I am really happy to be signing for Sligo Rovers.

”This is the Club’s second season in the League and, I think they have a brilliant group of girls so it is a pleasure to join.

”It will be great to put our heads down now for the rest of the season, obviously the World Cup provided a longer break and gave teams a good chance to rest so I think everyone is really excited to be back playing this weekend”.

Eimear, who has also had spells in Dublin with Peamount United and DLR Waves as well as Derry City, will wear the number 17 shirt for the Bit O’ Red this season.

Sligo Rovers overcame Treaty United in a friendly at The Showgrounds on Thursday night thanks to goals from strikers Owen Elding and Pedro Martelo.

Manager John Russell used the game to give some playing time to players returning from injury or suspension and it proved a good evening’s work as Reece Hutchinson, Fabrice Hartmann, Daniel Lafferty, James Finnerty, Richard Brush and Karl O’ Sullivan all started the game.

There was a blend of senior and youth in the squad with many of our Under 17 and 19 players involved in the game as well.

Next up for Rovers is that big game against Shelbourne on Saturday week, August 26th at 7.45pm.

We start off this weekend’s Academy Review with some good news.

Our Under 14 side are Galway Cup Champions following their 3-1 win over Glenavon FC on Saturday in Salthill Devon’s home ground, Drom.

Rovers attended the four day competition and were in a group against Leeds United, Republic of Ireland 2010’s and Glenavon.

First up, on Wednesday, Rovers drew 3-3 with the Northern Irish side with two goals from Conor Whittaker as well as Stephen Gibbons’ strike.

Thursday saw another draw, this time the points shared on a 2-2 scoreline, with Rovers’ goals coming from Gibbons who bagged an impressive brace.

English giants Leeds United were next up on Friday afternoon and the Bit O’ Red showed no fear on the day and came out on top, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Ryan Healy and Conor Whittaker.

This saw the lads progress to the final against Glenavon, who they drew with one Day One.

Rovers weren’t to be denied this time however as goals from Ryan Lang and a double from Whittaker ensured the trophy came to Sligo.

Ryan Kilkelly made a wonderful penalty save at 2-1 to deny the Northern Irish side a way back into the game.

Our Under 17 Men’s side hosted Bohemians on Saturday afternoon and an impressive display from the Dubs’ saw them win 4-0.

Our Under 17 Women’s team drew 3-3 at home to St. Patrick’s Athletic at the same time, thanks to goals from Anna McDaniel, scoring twice and a third from Mairead McIntyre.

Our Under 19 Men’s side played out a scoreless draw on Sunday afternoon at The Showgrounds against neighbours Finn Harps.

Our Under 19 Women were beaten 2-0 away to Shamrock Rovers, also on Sunday afternoon while our Men’s Under 15 side were beaten by the same scoreline away to Derry City in Letterkenny.

Our SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division clash with Wexford Youths on Saturday, September 2nd will be televised Live on TG4 at 7.35pm.

The game was originally scheduled to take place at 5pm on the same evening.

The side return to competitive action this coming Saturday evening away to Athlone Town.

Rovers striker Casey Howe attended today’s media evening for the announcement of the game being shown Live on TG4.

Sligo Rovers will host Treaty United in a Friendly this Thursday, August 17th at 7pm at The Showgrounds

Turnstiles will open from 6.15pm and admission is €5 for all categories, Adults and kids.

Season Tickets are not valid.

With a number of players now back from injury, John Russell will use the game to add important minutes to members of his squad ahead of our next League game with Shelbourne.

Sligo Rovers suffered a narrow defeat on Friday night away to Dundalk at Oriel Park.

The Bit O’ Red came into the game without defender Garry Buckley who wasn’t risked on the artificial surface after he returned from a knee injury recently.

Luke McNicholas joined Wrexham AFC yesterday so Conor Walsh started in goal for the first time this season.

John Russell brought John Mahon back into the starting eleven for Buckley and David Cawley captained the side in place of Kailin Barlow.

The game started fairly evenly with both sides creating a half chance each in the opening few minutes.

The biggest chance fell to striker Pedro Martelo as a cross from the left found him at the back post but his header flashed just wide, letting the hosts off the hook.

A minute later, Dundalk were in front. Archie Davies dug out a cross from the right and found Daniel Kelly at the back post who headed home from close range.

Rovers again had plenty of possession and looked threatening on the break with Martelo leading the line well and bringing others into play.

Greg Bolger found Stefan Radosavljevic inside the box but his effort was just too high, and Rovers trailed at the break.

The Bit O’ Red started the second half on the front foot, looking to break forward at every opportunity.

On the hour, John Russell introduced Fabrice Hartmann and Karl O’ Sullivan for Johan Brannefalk and David Cawley and Rovers continued to press forward from there on in.

Frank Liivak, who did well all night at right-back got down the right hand side on a few occasions but couldn’t quite pick anyone out in the area. The Estonian then had big claims for a penalty as it looked as if he was bundled over inside the area but the referee waived play on.

Martelo was denied by Nathan Shepperd minutes later with a dipping volley and he then flashed a cross-come-shot across the six yard box but no Rovers player was on the end of it.

Goalkeeper Conor Walsh, who was impressive all evening, denied sub Johannes Yli-Kokko who shot from just inside the area as the hosts looked to double their lead. Patrick Hoban was also denied by Walsh with a close range header.

Kailin Barlow and Reece Hutchinson, who returned following 10 weeks out through injury, replaced Lukas Browning and Greg Bolger for the final 15 minutes but Rovers couldn’t manage to score that all illusive equaliser.

Next up is a home game with Shelbourne on Saturday, August 26th at 7.45pm at The Showgrounds.

There are five games taking place this weekend for our Academy teams between Saturday and Sunday.

First up on Saturday, our Under 17 Men’s side host Bohemians at 1pm at The Sean Fallon Centre. The side are in good form lately and will be looking to continue that with a positive result against a strong away side.

Our Under 17 Women host St. Patrick’s Athletic at 1pm in Ballisodare, also on Saturday. Rovers have won three from their last four games so are also in good form going into the game.

Our Under 19 Men host neighbours Finn Harps on Sunday at 1pm at The Showgrounds while our Under 19 Women are in Dublin to play Shamrock Rovers at 3pm in Roadstone.

Our Under 15 team are in Derry to play Derry City at 2pm.

Our Under 14 side are in Galway this week at The Galway Cup and have no fixtures in the National League this weekend.

Our upcoming Women’s Premier Division game with Wexford Youths on Saturday September 2nd has been selected to be televised Live on TG4.

The game will now kick off at 7.35pm at The Showgrounds as opposed to the scheduled time of 5pm.

Admission will be €5 for all categories over 12.