- Macdara Ferris
- Sat, Feb 18 2023
SLIGO ROVERS
The Bit O’ Red begin their new season by taking on four-in-a-row seeking Shamrock Rovers at a 4,200 capacity sold out Showgrounds on Saturday evening (kick-off 7.45pm).
The Sligo side, who had an excellent European campaign in 2022, finished fifth in the league last year but a dozen points off fourth placed St Patrick’s Athletic who earned the final qualifying place for Europe (thanks to Derry City’s FAI Cup win).
How manager John Russell will replace the goals of Aidan Keena – who departed recently to Cheltenham Town – is a real challenge for the Sligo Rovers boss if they are to return to Europe once again.
He has boosted his side’s chances over the off-season by bringing in a host of new players including Johan Brannefalk, Daniel Lafferty, Reece Hutchinson (on loan), James Finnerty, Gary Boylan, Stefan Radosavljevic, Lukas Browning, John Mahon and Bogdan Vastsuk, along with Fabrice Hartmann finally being able to begin his loan spell from RB Leipzig.
“We’re all excited to kick-off the season in front of a sold out Showgrounds,” said Russell speaking to sligorovers.com.
“The players and staff have worked extremely hard during pre-season and, we’re all ready for the challenge ahead.”
“We know the quality Shamrock Rovers bring. They have set the benchmark for the past few seasons but it’s important that we focus on ourselves.
“Our home support will be vital for us this season and the players are relishing playing in front of them’’.
Russell has been dealt a blow to the campaign with a troika of his expected starting XI missing due to ACL knee injuries - Gary Boylan, Mark Byrne and Garry Buckley – and there is some potential temporary disruption after Niall Morahan picked up an ankle injury in last weekend’s friendly against Finn Harps that makes him a doubt.
On our extratime.com season preview podcast, we spoke with Jessica Farry about how the Bit O’Red are shaping up for 2023:
SHAMROCK ROVERS
With redevelopment works continuing at Tallaght Stadium, champions Shamrock Rovers begin their defence of their title with two away league games – beginning against the Bit O’ Red on Saturday evening.
The Hoops home form has been critical to winning three in a row – their only league defeat in Tallaght in the last three years is to Sligo Rovers (in 2021) but away from home they lost five matches alone last season.
Their recent record against Sligo Rovers is good however – beating them home and away 3-1 with the other league games last year finishing 2-2 in Tallaght and 1-1 in the Showgrounds. The Hoops haven’t lost in Sligo since 2019.
Speaking ahead of the game to shamrockrovers.ie, Stephen Bradley said: “I think Sligo Rovers are a much more difficult opposition than what we faced last year.
"They have some really dangerous attacking players and we'll see that on Saturday. It's always a tough place to play. I'm sure there will be a big crowd and we've sold out our end, so it has all the makings of a good game.
“From the first day of pre-season I said that our focus has been the first league game of the season. When we found out it was Sligo, that's been our focus from then on and that hasn't changed. We're fully focused on Sligo so hopefully we can go there, put in a good performance and win.”
Rovers lost the season curtain raiser 2-0 away to Derry City last week which laid down an early season marker for the Candystripes who are looking to go one better than their runners up spot last season.
“It was a really good game (against Derry in the President’s Cup) to prepare ourselves for Sligo. I felt there were a lot of things that we did really well in the game and there were obviously some things that we need to improve on. But, overall we were happy with lots of aspects of the performance.
“I think it's important that they all featured last week to get a taste of it in our team. Obviously they haven't played together in a competitive game so it was good for them to get a feel for that. It's not about them making an impact at the start of the season.
“We saw last year we had 54 games over the course of the season so it's not about everyone flying early on, it's about everyone contributing at different points of the season and I've no doubt we'll need that again this season.”
Rovers have brought in former Sligo Rovers fan favourite Johnny Kenny on loan from Celtic and the signing of the striker from Riverstown in Sligo is likely to add to the spice in the sold out Showgrounds on Saturday.
On our extratime.com season preview podcast, we spoke with Macdara Ferris about how the Hoops are shaping up for 2023, with that discussion right at the start of the podcast:
Referee: Damien MacGraith
MATCH STATS
The Hoops are unbeaten at the Showgrounds since May 2019 when the home side won 2-1 with goals from Daryl Fordyce and Jack Keaney either side of an Aaron Greene goal for the visitors.
The last team to win a league game in Sligo was Shamrock Rovers who won 3-1 at the start of October in what was one of the Hoops’ best performances on the road last season.
Following that loss, the Bit O’ Red had a scoreless draw with Derry City and a 1-0 win over St Patrick’s Athletic thanks to an Aidan Keena penalty to round off their 2022 games at the Showgrounds.
PREDICTION
2-1 away win
Sligo Rovers
Injured: Gary Boylan, Mark Byrne, Garry Buckley
Doubtful: Niall Morahan
Suspended: None
Shamrock Rovers
Injured: None
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
