Sligo Rovers will look to continue our good recent run of form when Dundalk visit the Showgrounds this Saturday evening as we welcome the high-flying Lilywhites to Sligo for the first time this season, kick-off 7.45pm.
Saturday’s match sponsor is Hegarty and Armstrong Solicitors, while EngDoc are our match ball sponsors.
Following a great start to their first season back in the Premier Division, Ciaran Kilduff’s side have picked up three wins from their last five. Form which sees them in third spot after twelve games ahead of this weekend’s action. They are also the league’s top goal-scorers with 22 goals.
Rovers find ourselves in steady shape too. The Bit O’Red are unbeaten in three and are looking for a third win on the spin after fantastic defeats of both Bohs and Waterford recently. John Russell’s men are this Saturday, on the hunt for a fourth league victory of the season and could possibly move into seventh with a win, depending on Friday night’s results.
This will be the second meeting of Rovers and Dundalk in 2026. Sligo were narrowly beaten by the Louth outfit at Oriel Park back in March after a controversial late penalty was dispatched by Dundalk skipper and former Rovers winger Daryl Horgan.
In team news and as of Friday morning, Rovers will again be without Ryan O’Kane, Conor Reynolds, Seb Quirk and Ciaron Harkin, each of whom are injured. Russell is hopeful that left back Sean Stewart can make the matchday squad at least having missed the last eight games with ankle trouble.
After that really impressive performance against Waterford last week, Russell is hoping his team can keep momentum rolling against last year’s First Division winners.
“We’re at home again and it’s a really big opportunity for us”, he tells sligorovers.com.
“I was delighted with both the team and individual performances against Waterford. We could have had four or five on the night with the amount of chances we had and that’s our second clean sheet in three games. There were a huge amount of positives to pull from it. Now we have to work hard to get even better and keep this run going.
“Dundalk will provide us with a big challenge on Saturday. They have goals everywhere and have options from the bench. They’ve done really well to come straight back up and start so well.
“We’re hopeful we’ll have Sean (Stewart) back this weekend so it means as weeks go on, we’re getting bodies back fit.
“As games go by and the weeks go on, we’re all getting more and more used to each other’s style and ways. It looks similar to last season, where we’re getting better as the weeks go on. Dundalk will be a really good test of where we are at the moment. This league is relentless and there’s no let up.
“We feel like we maybe owe them one after our last game”, Russell continued.
“We dominated large parts of that game up in Dundalk, early on and particularly in the second half. We played quite well. We hit the post and the crossbar and they won the game late on which we felt reflected harshly on our performance.
“I think we can expect a similarly tight game again on Saturday.”
David Goulden