Sligo Rovers can confirm women’s first team manager Tommy Hewitt has left the club by mutual consent.
Hewitt took over from former boss Steve Feeney in late 2023 and guided the club to this year’s FAI Cup semi final.
The club would like to put on record their appreciation of all of Tommy’s hard work and thank him for his time at the Showgrounds.
Sligo Rovers make the trip to Dublin for the final time in 2024 this Friday, as the Bit O’Red visit Tolka Park for the second occasion this season to take on title-chasing Shelbourne, kick-off 7.45pm.
Rovers face Shels in front of the Virgin Media television cameras as both camps try to pick up as many vital league points as possible between now and the end of the season.
This will be Rovers’ second visit to Drumcondra this season and the fourth meeting of the sides this year. John Russell’s charges have come out on top in two of the three preceding games against the league leaders, who sit three points ahead of Derry City going into Friday’s game. A win for Rovers could see them return to the top four depending on results elsewhere.
The Dubliners beat Rovers in the first clash between the pair in Sligo back in March. While goals from Kailin Barlow and Fabrice Hartmann cancelled out Sean Boyd’s strike for Shels to hand Rovers the points at Tolka on the last day of May. Sligo then beat Damien Duff’s men again last month at the Showgrounds, Will Fitzgerald and Wilson Waweru finding the net either side of Evan Caffrey’s goal early in the second period.
In team news, Waweru begins his journey back to fitness and will not travel. The striker was stretchered off having sustained an achilles injury shortly after his equalising goal against Dundalk last Saturday. The 23-year-old will meet with a specialist today (Thursday) to further assess the injury.
Defenders John Mahon and Conor Reynolds continue their rehab, while winger Stephen Mallon is likely to miss the rest of the season due to injury. Stefan Radosavljevic is yet to prove his fitness and won’t travel.
Jack Henry-Francis returns to the squad having missed that Dundalk victory through suspension.
Ahead of Friday’s game, Russell said it’s early days in terms of appraising Waweru’s fitness. The Rovers boss is also enjoying the run-in as he looks to steer the club to as high a position as possible.
“We don’t have the full picture on Wilson just yet”, he says. “So we’ll wait to see what the specialist says. He’s been in super form for us since the summer and will be a big loss should he miss the rest of the year. But that’s why we have a squad and it gives the chance for another player to take Wilson’s place and impress.
“It’s another weekend and another huge game for us. We weren’t at our best against Dundalk but we were happy with how we grinded out the win regardless. We showed plenty of character and maturity to turn that game around and that’s a real positive for us.
“At this stage of the season, it’s all about picking up points and as many as you can regardless of performance.
“Tolka is one of the toughest places to go. We’re playing the league leaders and possibly the champions of Ireland. But we always back ourselves and I have great faith in this team under any circumstance. Our next two games are against the top two so it’ll be tough but you’ve got to enjoy and embrace these challenges. We’re still in with a shout of finishing in a European spot with five games to go and that tells you how well we’ve done this year.”
David Goulden
Sligo Rovers has welcomed the allocation of €376,270 under the Government’s Community Sports Facility Fund. This funding will be used for floodlights, astro and facility upgrades.
Sligo Rovers Chairman Tommy Higgins said:
“This is a very significant investment and enables us to take the next steps in the redevelopment of the Showgrounds. I want to take this opportunity to thank Minister Catherine Martin, Minister of State Thomas Byrne and Frank Feighan TD for the interest they have taken in our development plans for the Showgrounds.
“We look forward to working with officials from the department to progress the works covered under this grant. These works are an integral part our Master Plan for the Showgrounds, and with funding allocations under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) expected shortly, these are very exciting times for the Sligo Rovers community as we aim to deliver a modern multi-sports stadium in the lead up to our Centenary celebrations in 2028.’
25th September 2024
The 2024 Annual Draw which took place last night at our home game against Dundalk, was hailed a major success for the club reaching a new record total of €130,300 raised.
The club would like to sincerely thank everyone who supported the draw this year.
The club also wishes to acknowledge and thank all the volunteers who worked tirelessly and with great dedication since the Annual Draw was launched a number of months ago. The 2024 total breaks last year’s record of €108,300 by some distance.
Congratulations to all prizewinners, including Patrick Downes of Ransboro, Sligo who won first prize of €5,000. Full list of prizewinners are detailed below:
1st prize Patrick Downes, Ransboro – €5,000
2nd Aaron Deering, Roscommon – €1,000 Pet Stop Discount Warehouse Voucher
3rd Keith McMcMorrow – One night Bed and Breakfast for two and dinner in the Clayton Hotel Liffey Valley
4th V McCullagh,Teesan – 2 Corporate Tickets for a Liverpool home match
5th Gerry O’Reilly – 2025 Sligo Rovers Season Ticket
6th Simon McVann, Cloonacool – €200 Kate’s Kitchen Voucher
7th Coleman’s Electronics – €200 Elverys Voucher
8th Neil Connolly – €200 Ticketmaster Voucher
9th Donal Egan, Oxfield – 2 Tickets for Mamma Mia 28/9/24
10th Alan Greer, Skreen – Signed Republic of Ireland jersey
Sligo Rovers captain Niall Morahan returns to the Bit O’Red’s match day squad for Saturday’s Premier Division clash with Dundalk at the Showgrounds, kick-off 7.45pm.
The Rovers skipper missed last week’s defeat to Shamrock Rovers through suspension courtesy of an accumulation of yellow cards, but returns in time to face the Lilywhites on Saturday. This is welcome news for manager John Russell who will be without Jack Henry-Francis, who replaced Morahan in the starting eleven for that game in Tallaght. Henry-Francis himself is unavailable for the Dundalk game as he serves a one game ban for two yellow cards picked up in that loss in Dublin.
Elsewhere Stefan Radosavljevic, John Mahon and Conor Reynolds will not take part due to injuries. Stephen Mallon is also unavailable.
While Owen Elding will be assessed leading up to the kick-off.
The teams are evenly matched this term with one win, one draw and one defeat against each other. Rovers put five past Dundalk in the first meeting of the sides in Oriel Park back in March, while the Louth men took a point from the Showgrounds one month later. John Daly’s side then took all three points in the last game between the clubs in Dundalk in June.
Rovers will look to keep up their superb home form, having won all of their last six league games on Sligo soil. While depending on the result between Drogheda and Bohs on Friday, Dundalk may have the chance to lift themselves off the foot of the table.
Russell is desperate to keep that home run going but knows that recent developments at Oriel will perhaps see Saturday’s opponents arrive in Sligo with their backs up.
“They’ve had a difficult few days but there was some good news for them a few days ago and it’s great to see that Dundalk in some way at least, seem to be heading in the right direction. I am sure spirits in the camp have been lifted with recent developments and they’ll be hoping that will translate on to the pitch.
“Either way, they’ve got some of the most talented players in the league and we know from experience how they can hurt you.
“We’re in really good form at the Showgrounds and we want to keep that run going. A strong home record is the pillar of a good season.
“I thought the result in Tallaght didn’t really reflect the true story of the game. We opened Shamrock Rovers up on several occasions when we had eleven men and we just lacked that last ball to finish them off. We’ll look to improve on that come Saturday.
“We’re very much still in the mix to finish the season the way we want to. We will get there by winning games and that’s the aim this weekend.”
David Goulden
By Jim Gray
Within hours of last Friday night’s humiliating result in Drogheda, the WhatsApp Group of the Sligo Rovers Annual Draw volunteers was buzzing. Not, as might have been a reasonable reaction, with recrimination or self-pity, but rather with a resolve to double-down on efforts to make this year’s fund-raiser the most successful ever. The show must go on.
“Funnily enough, results on the field have never had any relevance to the success or otherwise of the draw,” Mark Cummins confirms. “The worry might be more about the effect on the morale of our sellers, but the response on our WhatsApp group demonstrated that everybody is still up for it, not deterred in any way, still raring to go. That’s the spirit which keeps this club going, in good times and bad.”
Mark is the club’s Stadium Development Officer. In recent years, he’s taken on the role of the Annual Draw co-ordinator, planning, plotting, perfecting a military-precision operation which in the last two years alone has raised a staggering 212,000 euro. His father, Seamus, is a former Chairman of the club who oversaw the historic 1983 FAI Cup campaign but who also steered the club through some difficult financial storms. So, Mark knows the value of a few bob in a community-owned and run club where a ravenous wolf is constantly gnawing at the door.
The Annual Draw is one of three vital pillars in the club’s fund-raising operation, alongside the weekly Lotto and the 500 Club. It comes at a crucial time in the season, its earnings plugging holes which might otherwise prove catastrophic.
Mark explains: “The proceeds come in at a very important time of the year. There’s the mid-season break, maybe we’re out of the FAI Cup, there’s no European football, but the wages still have to be paid every week. It helps the club trade throughout the months of June, July, August and September, often lean times in terms of other income. Without that cash flow at that particular period of the season things could become extremely difficult.”
Initially mainly a town-based effort with a more restricted time-span, the draw has built huge momentum in recent years, with an increasing number of volunteers enabling a much wider area to be covered. The team now numbers 30 committed men and women who pound the streets, knock on doors, drilling deep into previously uncharted territory over a period of about three months.
With almost evangelical zeal, and a hunger which would put electioneering politicians to shame, they painstakingly cover the terrain, inching across the county from North to South, East to West, traversing borders into Leitrim and Roscommon, spreading the Rovers gospel as they go.
They take to the road on three nights each week, one of which will be a dedicated ‘blitz’, where they’ll hit an area with more than a dozen bodies, seeking out even the most obscure addresses.
“We cover all the bigger towns and villages, and we’ve been down practically every country road and boreen. The more volunteers we have, the more mileage we’ll cover. This year, we’ve been in Boyle for the first time; last year we went to Easkey and Dromore West for the first time; hopefully next year we’ll get as far as Ballina. It’s not rocket science, the more bodies we have on the ground, the greater the return will be,” Mark points out.
Although the effort represents a huge workload for those involved, Mark insists it’s a thoroughly enjoyable undertaking.
“There’s a great spirit amongst the sellers,” he confirms. “We’re always messaging each other after a night on the road, so we know how things are going and we’re able to boost each other. There’s always a bit of craic. People say it must be tough, but to us it never seems that way.
“Our aim setting out each night is to hit every door possible, even doors where we’re fairly sure we won’t get a sale. Sometimes it can be briefly demoralising, but the point is that even if we don’t sell a ticket at a particular door, we still get 15 or 20 seconds to talk to people about Rovers. So, it’s a PR exercise as much as anything, an opportunity to promote the club. We’d often come across people who’ll tell us they’ve never been in the Showgrounds, but they want to help anyway. It is never time wasted.”
Emphasising that the reaction is seldom directly related to results, Mark subscribes to the view that if on-field success was the only criteria in keeping Rovers afloat the club would have run aground decades ago.
“The reality is this club has never relied on trophies for its survival,” he maintains. “People talk about the glory years, which is fair enough. But, in a sense these are the glory years. Since relegation was introduced, this is the longest period we’ve gone without going down. That’s success.
“On the doorsteps people might moan about a particular result, but they’ll do it as they’re filling in a ticket and handing over a tenner. In most cases, people are much more likely to talk about the work we’re doing in the community, or the regional summer camps, or the birthday parties at the Showgrounds. It’s always much more than results. The club reaches out and connects with people in a manner which is much deeper than whether we’ve won or lost a couple of games.”
The admirable work of the foot-soldiers is augmented by a number of individuals who take 50 books of tickets and distribute them amongst family and friends, amounting to an impressive return of 5,000 euro. In addition, the Bit’O’Red Supporters Trust (BORST) sell up to 20,000 euro worth of tickets, and the Dublin Supporters’ Club chips in another 5,000 euro. Online sales attract support from America, Australia and countless other locations around the globe where exiled Rovers fans are glad of the opportunity to lend a hand.
In 2022, a new record was set when the draw raised a total of 104,000 euro. Last year, that figure was surpassed by another 4,000 euro. The target this year is to create a new milestone of 110,000 euro, as sales efforts are intensified in the final three weeks.
The draw, which carries a first prize of 5,000 euro and an enticing array of other rewards, will take place at the Showgrounds on September 21st, during half-time of the tie against Dundalk. Tickets, priced at 10 euro each, will be on sale right up to the last minute.
The heroic efforts of those involved in the annual draw illustrate yet again that win, lose or draw, Rovers persevere because of the efforts of selfless volunteers and supporters. It has always been this way. The show must go on.
Tickets for the 2024 Annual Draw can be bought using the link below 👇
Sligo Rovers are back in action in front of the RTE television cameras this Friday night as the Bit O’Red travel to Dublin for the penultimate time this season, Shamrock Rovers this weekend’s opponents.
Tallaght Stadium is the venue with kick-off at 7.45pm as Rovers look to pick up their first league victory at the home of the Premier Division champions since 2021.
The sides come into this tie level on head-to-head form, with both clubs having recorded a victory over each other in 2024. The Hoops beat Rovers in Tallaght back in April, while Sligo put in one of their best performances of the season to beat Stephen Bradley’s charges at the Showgrounds in June, courtesy of a Simon Power brace. The other game between the teams back in March, failed to produce a goal.
Rovers will be without captain Niall Morahan for this one. The Leitrim man misses out through suspension courtesy of an accumulation of yellow cards. While Stefan Radosavljevic, John Mahon and Conor Reynolds also won’t make the game due to injury. Winger Stephen Mallon will be assessed before kick-off.
On the back of the win over Waterford two weeks ago, Rovers manager John Russell says the competitive nature of this year’s league means every point is crucial.
“The players and staff have been fully focused the past two weeks and we’re really looking forward to facing Shamrock Rovers”, he says.
“We’ve continued to improve as the season has gone on and now we find ourselves at the business end of the year where everyone has something to play for. That makes for an interesting and intense finish to the season where each team is doing all they can to pick up as many points as possible, which everyone wants to see.
“Nobody has to remind us how big of a challenge it is to go to Tallaght. But the surface down there is always in top shape and that suits our style of play.
“It’s vital we play to our strengths for this one and impose ourselves on the game from early on.”
David Goulden
BY JIM GRAY
Ryan Casey has been in and around professional football since he was 15 years old. Even before then, growing up in a football-mad household where his late father had been a professional player with Blackburn Rovers, he was nurturing the love of a game which was to become his life.
His impressive, if seldom heard back-story, means he brings a wealth of experience to the table as John Russell’s right-hand man at Sligo Rovers. One of the famous ‘Kerr’s Kids’ who won Ireland’s only under-18 European Youth Championship in 1998 and played at a youth World Cup a year later, he honed his skills as a professional player during a five-year stretch with Swansea City; he’s played with five League of Ireland clubs; been a Director of Coaching at a top academy in America, and before joining the Rovers’ coaching staff worked as the FAI Regional Development Officer in Sligo.
Born in Coventry, of Irish parents, he grew up in Galway City, where soccer, despite the county’s obsession with Gaelic games and rugby, was always a thriving sport. His parents, Peter and Kathleen, grew up just streets apart in Bohermore but had never met before moving to England. Their four daughters returned with English accents, but their six- month- old baby boy has no memory of ever having lived anywhere other than Ireland.
Ryan has memories, though, of playing underage football in Galway with a raw passion and bundles of ability, after the family had returned to its native roots. He played for youth club, Newcastle and his father’s club, Galway Hibs, and later travelled by train to Dublin every week-end to line out for Belvedere, where he was spotted by an eagle-eyed Swansea scout.
He signed for the Welsh club as soon as he’d finished his Junior Cert. His mother, though proud of his progress, wanted him to remain at home at least until he’d completed his Leaving Cert, but his father, enthused by his own background in the game, encouraged his young son to take the plunge.
“It wasn’t easy,” Ryan concedes. “Leaving home and family at 15 for a strange new place obviously presented a challenge. There were no mobile phones, no such thing as face-time. You had to find a pay-phone to ring home, and you couldn’t always afford it.
“But all I ever wanted was to be a footballer. Wild horses wouldn’t have held me back. I was living the dream.”
He made his first team debut as a 17 years old left-winger, under player/manager, Jan Molby, the former Liverpool legend. He would go on to play 150 senior games for the club across the lower leagues of the English pyramid, where team-mates included the current Portugal manager, Roberto Martinez and English striker, Lee Chapman.
“I loved Swansea,” he recalls. “It was one of those places, a lot like Sligo, where the club is the heartbeat of the community, and if the club is going well it seems the entire town is doing well. We’d be getting an average home attendance of about 10,000 and the place would be a sell-out for a big FA Cup game.”
One such cup tie produced a famous win over high-flying West Ham, who were backboned by the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Paulo Di Caneo. Swansea’s shock victory put Casey in the shop window, and a move to West Ham looked to be on the cards.
The Londoners’ first bid was rejected and as they were preparing to try again, Casey snapped his ankle in an inauspicious Coca Cola Cup game against Reading. The injury not only scuppered his move to the Premier League but caused an 18-month absence from the game.
There were happier times, though, in the Irish under-age set up under Brian Kerr and the late Noel O’Reilly. A scoring debut in a friendly against Northern Ireland helped secure his place in the squad for the 1998 European qualifiers and then on to the tournament itself in Cyprus, where the eight best teams on the Continent competed for the coveted crown.
In the group stages, Ireland beat Croatia and Cyprus and lost narrowly to hot favourites, England, who had future stars such as Alan Smith and Jonathan Woodgate in their ranks. But England then surprisingly slipped up against Croatia and Ireland were though to the final as rank outsiders against Germany.
Earlier that summer, Kerr’s under-16 team had won their European Championship, and the entire country it seemed tuned in to RTE’s coverage to see if the under-18’s could complete a remarkable double. Ireland took a 70th minute lead through Alan Quinn only for Germany to force the game to penalties with a 90th minute equaliser.
When Kerr sought volunteers for the dramatic penalty shoot-out, a plethora of hands shot skywards. Seeking the first-taker, however, he saw only Casey’s outstretched hand.
“Nobody was too eager to take the first one,” Ryan recalls. “We knew it was a big deal, a bit of history. We’d watched the under-16s winning only a few months earlier, so we were aware of all the excitement and we knew we’d be getting a fair bit of attention. Maybe that put a few people off taking the first one, but I had no problem with it. Dad had always taught me not to be afraid of penos, so I just stepped up and blasted it home.”
By the end of the nerve-wracking lottery, Luton’s Liam George had slotted home Ireland’s winner. Kerr’s kids had completed an historic double.
The following year, Ryan was part of the Irish youth squad who reached the last 16 of the youth World Cup in Nigeria.
“Noel O’Reilly was ahead of his time as a coach, and Kerr was a terrific motivator, instilling in us how proud we should be of our country and the jersey. We’d have gone through brick walls for them. We also had a lot of quality in the squad. Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne were already playing regularly in the Premier League, and six of the lads would go on to become senior internationals,” Ryan points out.
On the club front, Swansea went into administration in 2002 as the lower leagues plunged into a chaotic free-fall following the collapse of a television rights deal. It was time for Ryan to think about returning home, where better wages were now on offer in the League of Ireland. He would play for St. Pat’s, Cork City, Galway, Athlone and Longford as well as doing all his coaching badges.
This led to his first experience of living in Sligo in 2007, as he took up a full-time role with the FAI as Regional Development Officer for the area.
“As a player, I never really liked the Showgrounds. I don’t think I ever won a game there,” he recalls. “But I fell in love with Sligo once I came to live here. It’s home to me now. I love that sense of community, the passion for football, the family-friendly atmosphere at the club. I probably wouldn’t ever have envisaged it happening, but it has and I’m delighted.”
After a year as Director of Coaching with Everton’s New York academy, where he had a staff of 22 coaches looking after more than 600 young players, Ryan returned to Sligo, eventually linking up with Liam Buckley and John Russell. He became Russell’s assistant when his fellow Galwegian replaced Buckley at the helm.
He’s naturally delighted at how the season has gone so far, but quickly points out there is no magic wand. At a community-owned club, hard work and honesty are the basic requirements, and the next challenge is never far away.
He elaborates: “Myself and John go back a long way. We played together at Galway, and we’ve been pals for quite a while. We’d have basically the same football philosophy and we work well together. He’s a top-class manager, and people are beginning to see what he’s capable of.
“It’s a roller-coaster, of course. We work off a relatively small budget and it’s always a challenge. Thankfully, it’s going well at the moment. We have a very honest, hard-working bunch of players. Once you get players with the right attitude, you can put a shape together, try to improve them, and work hard every day. Then you’ve got a chance. The backroom staff are also a very tightly-knit bunch, all hard and honest workers, so it all helps in good times and bad.
“And then there’s the backing of the supporters. I got a sense of that when I was in the FAI job, a feeling that this really is a football-mad place. You can see how much the club means to everybody, and you buy into that. There’s a togetherness that you don’t always find in football.”
Now happily settled in Collooney with his wife, Claire, sons, Noah (9) and Charlie (8), and daughter, Isla (2), Ryan is happy that the family’s football DNA is being well nurtured.
“The boys play soccer for Ballisodare and Gaelic football with Owenmore Gaels, and they love it. They’re huge Rovers’ supporters, too. It’s something that will stay with them for life. We couldn’t be happier,” he says.
Sligo Rovers are delighted to announce that Glasgow Celtic will travel to the Showgrounds to take on the Bit O’Red for a mid-season friendly on Wednesday October 9th, kick-off 7.30pm.
The game will honour the memory of the late Tommie Gorman, lifelong Sligo Rovers supporter, who was instrumental in initiating this visit of the Scottish giants to Sligo before he sadly passed away in June. It will also celebrate the friendship and close links between the clubs along with marking Celtic’s historical links to County Sligo.
This match will take place just a few miles from the birthplace of Andrew Kerins, better known as Brother Walfrid, a Ballymote native who founded Celtic all the way back in 1888. Statues honouring Brother Walfrid are erected both at Celtic Park and in Ballymote town itself.
Another intrinsic tie and a huge figure which connects Rovers and Celtic will also be celebrated on the day and that is Sean Fallon, the Sligo native who not only played for both clubs but was also Celtic’s assistant manager when the famous Lisbon Lions beat Inter Milan in the 1967 European Cup final. That incredible triumph marked Celtic as the first ever British side to win this competition, the precursor to the modern day Champions League.
Fondly remembered in Glasgow as Celtic’s ‘Iron Man’, the astro-turf facilities at the Showgrounds are also named after Fallon.
This meeting follows on from Rovers’ meeting with Everton in July of this year and once again, there is expected to be huge interest as another giant of European football visits Church Hill Road.
Celtic first team manager Brendan Rodgers will travel with his squad. He is looking forward to visiting Sligo and bringing some of his first team to the Showgrounds.
“When you’re working at a club like Celtic you are reminded every day of its history”, he says. “So it’s great to be able to visit and play in Sligo, a place where the club has so many amazing links. The game takes place during the international window so it’ll be a good work out for the first team players who aren’t involved with their countries that week. We know there is a huge Celtic following in Ireland, nowhere more so than in the north west, so it will be a great chance for so many to see the players in action.”
“For myself personally, its always great to go home so this is a trip I am really looking forward to but for everyone else of course, both sets of fans and both clubs, I know this will be a great occasion.”
Rovers boss John Russell is also anticipating the visit of the Scottish Premiership champions.
“It’ll be a great day for both clubs given the history Celtic have here in Sligo”, he notes. “I’d expect the game to sell out straight away and it’ll be great to see the Showgrounds packed to the rafters. It’ll be a nice test for our boys to see how they get on against one of the biggest clubs in the world. The excitement in the area when Everton visited in the summer was amazing and I’d expect a huge amount of attention will be focused on this game also.”
Interest in this game is expected to be high and supporters are advised to secure their tickets as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
A priority window for tickets for Rovers supporters will take place at the Showgrounds for season ticket holders, Super Reds, 500 Club members and full members of the club this Monday, September 9th and Tuesday, September 10th between 10am and 5pm. All those purchasing tickets must provide proof that they are eligible to purchase tickets under one of the aforementioned categories.
Tickets will then go on general online sale this Wednesday, September 11th at 10am
Tickets are €25 general admission and there will be a limited number of concession tickets available, with OAPs/students/over 12s costing €18 and U12s costing €12.
All online tickets are subject to a €2 booking fee.
Sligo Rovers can confirm that defender Nando Pijnaker has left the club with immediate effect and will continue his career closer to home, with a fee being agreed with his new club.
Pijnaker leaves the Showgrounds following over two and a half years at the Bit O’Red. The 25-year-old initially joined the club on a loan deal from Portuguese side Rio Ave in early 2022 before Rovers made the deal permanent later that year.
The Kiwi international made his Rovers debut at Richmond Park on the opening night of the 2022 season in a win over St Patrick’s Athletic and went to appear 84 times for the club.
Pijnaker established himself as one of the League of Ireland’s top defenders and in doing so, understandably attracted the interest of a host of clubs from across the world.
Speaking about Pijanker’s departure, Rovers boss John Russell thanked the centre half for his contribution to the club and explained the circumstances around the move.
“Every transfer window, there’s been interest in Nando. We turned down bids in the past and even last January he was close to leaving but we persuaded him to stay on”, Rusell says.
“We had an agreement with Nando that if the right move came for him, we would not stand in his way. He has an opportunity now to play at a club closer to where he is from and I and the club have kept our word in regard to that.
“Nando has been a big player for us since joining the club. His game has developed over the seasons he’s been here and that’s a testament to him and the staff that have worked with him.
“I would like to thank Nando for all his efforts and wish him all the best in his future career.”
