Some adult tickets remain on sale for the away section. Kick-off in the Showgrounds is at 8pm with live coverage on Virgin Media Two
Our Friday-Monday points haul last weekend was four after beating Derry and drawing 2-2 with Shelbourne. Is that a satisfactory tally of points from two tough games?
“To be honest, we’re frustrated we don’t have six points. But I suppose after going two goals down against Shels, you take the point and move on. It’s done, we have four points and we get ready for the next few games.”
On the latter game, being two early goals down to Shelbourne, but being level by half time was a brilliant reaction by the team.
“The players were excellent. Even before the Shelbourne goals, I thought there was some really good stuff. The goals can knock you and it was sloppy from us, but the reaction again from us was brilliant. We got back into our stride, controlled the game and created some opportunities and played some really good football.”
John McGovern scored his first goal of the season and was taken down for the penalty from which Dylan Watts equalised and was unlucky not to make it 3-2 in the second half. Is John really beginning to find his feet now in our system?
“You can see John is now very comfortable in what we do. He’s been unlucky recently, in terms of he’d been playing and got sick recently so we took him out. But any time John has played, he’s been good and is more used to what we’re doing.”
Next up for us is Sligo Rovers away. They got their first win of the season last weekend at the expense of Drogheda. They should be buoyed by that win despite their early season form.
“They will be, it will be a tough game. Any time we play Sligo, it’s a tough game. We know we need to be ready for that tomorrow, which we will. But we know we have to respect Sligo and be ready for them.”
It’s another Friday/Monday weekend of games. Despite the demands on players, is it a good way of ensuring as many players as possible are getting game time or does the necessity to rotate the team make it more difficult in terms of team consistency and rhythm?
“It’s a bit of both. But, as the season goes, it settles. I’ve no problem with the Friday/Monday games. We like them and we have a really good squad. You can see throughout the years, we’ve done really well with them. They are tough with the quick turnaround, especially with two away games this weekend, but it’s enjoyable. I’m sure the players enjoy them, playing games rather than training.”
Is there an update on Dan Cleary’s injury and anyone else unavailable with Danny Mandroiu, Rory Gaffney and Max Kovalevskis?
“Dan will miss three or four weeks. There are no new knocks. Rory remains out but Max is almost back and we also had young Ben Mahon and Egor Vassenin out, but they are back training too. Everyone else is fine.”
