On Saturday afternoon, our U14 ‘s finished their season in style by beating Longford Town 4-0 at the Sean Fallon Centre. Conor Langan (twice) and Cillian O’Neill were once again on the scoresheet to add to a strike from Johnny Mcguinn. Rovers went into the game needing a win to guarantee 3rd place in the group but, unfortunately, results elsewhere went against the boys denying them a spot in the Quarter Finals as a best placed team. A slow start to the summer saw the team fail to win any of their first five games but performances and results improved tremendously to the point that they finished the season with a record of four wins and two draws from the final eight games.
Later that day at the same venue our WU17’s suffered defeat for the first time in their own Shield group, going down 2-0 to Athlone Town. The result could have gone either way but the girls can still take solace in the fact that they remain top of the table after four rounds. A draw between Greystones and DLR Waves means Rovers remain two points clear of the former and three ahead of the latter with two rounds of games to play.
Their U17 male counterparts were in action on Saturday evening also, travelling to Baldonnell to take on UCD. It was another tight game where Rovers were once again unlucky to be beaten, this time by just the odd goal in three, Michael Clifford with the consolation. UCD therefore leapfrog Rovers into 2nd place with one game remaining and two points between the teams. The final round of fixtures take place on October 23rd when Rovers host Cavan/Monaghan in a must-win game. UCD travel to Donegal that day to take on Finn Harps and we will need a favour from our neighbours if we are to make the Semi-Finals.
Sunday afternoon and the Sean Fallon Centre saw our U15 side completely mirror the U14’s from the day prior. Another 4-0 win for Rovers, once again against Longford Town, but unfortunately for the second day running it wasn’t going to be enough to qualify for the Quarter Finals. Cillian McGing scored his first ever league double for Sligo Rovers as Daire Patton and regular goalscorer Gary Farren completed the scoring as the U15’s campaign came to a close.
Finally, it was a tough trip to Dublin for the U19’s as they were beaten for the first time in the Elite league this season. Josh Mulrennan scored once again but Bohemians 3-1 victory at St. Aidan’s CBS ended the last unbeaten record in the league and helped the hosts close the gap to Rovers at the top to just two points. Derry City beat Shelbourne and moved 2nd just one point behind Rovers with four rounds of fixtures to play in what should be a really exciting run-in.
Richard Mullan