by Michael Moran, courtesy The Sligo Champion

The in-form Mansaram was substituted minutes from the end of Rovers two-nil victory over Longford at Flancare Park, but manager Sean Connor has revealed that the injury is not as serious as was first thought.

“We have a deliberate policy at the club whereby players come off the pitch if they have any hint of a knock in order not to make things worse.

“Darren felt a slight strain in his thigh and he came off, while Gary Curran (who started at right back) also got a bit of an injury and we also took him off,” Connor confirmed.

Two splendid goals from former Leeds United winger, Harpal Singh, gave Rovers an important win against Longford and pushed them into fourth place in the table prior to Cork’s meeting with St. Patrick’s Athletic on Monday night.

And, the Rovers boss was of the opinion that the victory showed just how far his squad has come since their return to the top flight as First Division champions.

“Not too long ago we would have looked at Longford and aspired to match what they had achieved. Now, we have overtaken them and I am delighted with that.

“We set high standards for ourselves and we certainly aim to finish as high up the table as possible,” Connor maintained.

The Rovers boss has described the Bohemians game on Saturday as “massive” and a win over the managerless Gypsies would set up another fascinating encounter with Cork.

“Every game we win, keeps our season alive. We must try to build on the Longford result and by that I mean taking all three points from Bohs.

“If we beat them, the Cork game then becomes massive in its own right. If we don’t beat Bohs, the Cork game diminishes a little and will not be as big as it might be,” he argued.

Connor, however, has pledged that he will not drop his own intensity levels from here to the end of the season whatever the fortunes of his side.

“We have a great platform from which to build for the future and there is no reason why we can’t be up there pushing the leaders as hard as ever we can.

“Players might drop their intensity levels, but if they do they know they will be out of the team, because we have a good squad now and everyone is pushing for places,” he said.

The manager also discounted speculation that full back Keith Foy had been dropped due to a training ground row.

“I just don’t know where these type of rumours start. Keith also had a slight strain and I decided to leave him on the bench. He did well when he came on,” he stated.

Connor was happy with the win over Longford, despite his team not playing particularly well.

“I was very pleased. I thought our performance was workmanlike and disciplined. I didn’t think we used the ball as good as we can, but we won with two strokes of genius from Harpal Singh and it is always pleasing when an individual gets a result like that for you,” he said. *Rovers have announced that Saturday’s game against Bohemians has a 7.30pm kick-off, with an 8.00pm start for Tuesday’s match against Cork.