'Bleak' - Alan Cawley runs the rule over Sligo Rovers' season so far

RTÉ News​

2 days ago

At the halfway stage of the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division, things are looking rather "bleak" for Sligo Rovers, according to RTÉ soccer analyst Alan Cawley.
The table says as much with the Bit o' Red bottom of the table and facing a tough task to scrape survival once the campaign resumes after the mid-season break.
The one saving grace for John Russell's outfit is that Cork City are only a point above them in the relegation play-off spot.
But Cork, who played well on Friday on the way to taking a point against Shelbourne at Turners Cross, will be hoping that new manager Gerard Nash and his incoming assistant, former Republic of Ireland midfielder David Meyler, can give them a bounce.
As for Sligo, while goalscoring hasn't been an issue, other positives have been thin on the ground and the type of summer surge that helped them finish mid-table last season isn't showing much sign of being on the horizon.
And former Shelbourne league winner Cawley is not seeing too much ground for optimism as he told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"I think it's fairly bleak when you look at it in terms of the stats and the points, everything is pointing towards relegation sadly for them," said the Sligo native who also spoke earlier in the episode about the experience of attending Saturday's Champions League final in Munich.
"They've been poor, very poor. I've seen them in a lot of games recently and they have been poor.
"Now, in fairness to John Russell, he lost the goalkeeper (Ed) McGinty, he lost Ellis Chapman who went to Shelbourne, he lost (Niall) Morahan, the spine of the team really, and when you're losing players as good as that and then you're not replacing them, I think it's been very, very difficult for John in that regard."
The one "shining light" according to Cawley is young striker Owen Elding who he and former Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers midfielder Richie Towell both picked as their Young Player of the Season so far.
"He's been outstanding, seven goals. But if you're relying on a young fella to basically grab you by the scruff of the neck and get you back into games and win you points, I don't think that speaks well of some of the other lads maybe in the squad as well. So it's been really tough for John, it's been really poor overall," he said.
At the halfway point of the season, Sligo are the only team to not pick up a win after falling behind, picking up just two points in that scenario and Cawley feels they often leave themselves with too much to do in games.
"I think that's been one of the biggest problems in all the games, they don't give themselves a chance in games because they're falling behind through sloppy needless goals and there have been games where they've been two down in a lot of cases after only 15-20 minutes and then they show great heart and desire to chase the game and get themselves back but it all comes a little bit too late," he said.
"They've conceded 34 goals as well. Defensively they've been very poor. They've won only one game at home all season and that's really, really poor because whatever about going on the road and trying to pick up points, you need to be trying to make your home place a bit of a fortress and tough to beat and a difficult place for people to go but if you've only won one game all season as well, I don't think that's great.
"So it's pretty bleak at the moment it really is. There are allowances in terms of budgets maybe and what (Russell) has lost from last year and not being able to replace that, but still that's probably no consolation to John Russell. He'll still feel they should be higher up in the table.
"But the only hope I see is that Cork are in touching distance, only a point ahead of them."