Sligo Rovers face Dundalk on Friday night in the opening game of the SSE Airtricity Premier Division at Oriel Park, kick-off 7:45pm.

It will be 112 days since Liam Buckley was appointed to taking charge of his first competitive game and Bit O’ Red fans will hope it’s worth the wait for a new-look squad.

In team news, Ronan Murray (ankle) and David Cawley (knee) will have late injury tests. Ronan Coughlan joined on Thursday and should be part of the squad.

There are eight new faces in the squad in total.

Liam Buckley said: “We’ve had a good pre-season with a lot of work done in terms of fitness and developing the style of play. I think in the number of weeks we’ve spent working on the training pitch and playing matches that progress has been made in instilling that.

“It’s a new season and a new start for all. It’s a challenging game to start with, there is no doubt about that about that, but we’re looking forward to going out there and competing.

“I think we’ve brought good players to the club. When I joined I spoke about signing players here to improve the team, not just to fill a squad for the sake of it. We’ll go there with a belief we can get a positive result and we’re very much looking forward to it.”