04-05-2025
John Russell admits Sligo Rovers ‘architects of our own downfall' but vows to ‘use it as fuel' after Drogheda Utd draw
JOHN RUSSELL will accept any criticism that comes Sligo Rovers' way due to their 'criminal' defensive record.
Not for the first time this season, the
1
Sligo Rovers manager John Russell during the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division match against Drogheda United
Credit: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
But Rovers rallied and forced a way back into the game courtesy of two goals in five minutes, the first a close-range Owen Elding
strike
and the second a calamitous James Bolger own goal.
The 2-2 home draw means
Sligo
have won just two of their first 13 games this season, despite being the Premier Division's joint-top scorers.
But they have by far the leakiest defence and the Showgrounds supremo claims they are conceding too many 'stupid' goals.
Raging Russell fumed: 'Players, staff, the team — we're not in a position we want to be in and we're the architects of our own downfall.
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'But we have to use it as fuel when people want to take pops, we will prove them wrong. The big players are the leaders who step up when the chips are down.
'We showed character to come back into it against Drogs, but the killer is conceding two goals again.
'It's criminal because we have such ability in this group.
'We can score goals and could have had another two on Friday night, but it's such a challenge to score goals when you go two down. The players know how good we are and what we can do.
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'We're dealing with a lot of setbacks but we have to deal with these stupid goals we're giving away every week.'
