Our Men’s Under 19, 17 and 15 teams have all progressed to the next round of their respective cups.
The draws for each have been made, with games taking place on Saturday August 26th or Sunday August 27th.
Our Men’s Under 19 side will take on Shamrock Rovers away from home at 3pm on Sunday with our Men’s Under 17’s hosting Shelbourne at 1pm on the Saturday.
Our Under 15 Men’s team host Bohemians or Klub Kildare, also on Sunday with a kick-off time yet to be decided.
Saturday evening will see Sligo Rovers Club Captain David Cawley honoured with his Testimonial game at 6pm at The Showgrounds.
Cawley welcomes back some former team-mates and friends to Churchill as they take on the current Rovers team.
Confirmed so far are fellow 2023 League winners Jason McGuinness, Joseph Ndo, Alan Keane and Danny North.
Mayo native Ronan Murray, who spent 2019 and 2020 at The Showgrounds with Cawley is also confirmed. The pair also played together at Galway United in 2017.
Leo Tierney and Paul Fielding will be part of Cawley’s backroom team for the game.
The current Bit O’ Red squad should feature those who don’t play in Friday’s game against Dundalk or indeed those who play less time than others however all players are expected to be part of the squad which will also be propped up by some of our Academy players who did so well in a recent friendly at home to Celtic B.
More players will be announced in the coming 24-48 hours.
Tickets for our game with Dundalk FC this Friday night at Oriel Park are now available online via the link below:
https://embed.futureticketing.ie/c/dundalk-fc/
The game kicks off at 7.45pm and will also be Live on LOI TV.
We wish all supporters making the trip to Louth a safe journey.
Our Under 14 side are in action this week in Salthill Devon FC’s Drom facility in the Galway Cup.
Rovers are in a group with Republic of Ireland Under 15 development side, Leeds United and Glenavon from Northern Ireland.
The first game takes place at 3pm on Wednesday against Glenavon.
On Thursday, Rovers play the Irish National side at 5.40pm and the final group game takes place on Friday afternoon at 2pm.
For results and updates you can check out the club’s Academy social media pages.
Our Annual Draw is now 6 weeks away as the draw takes place at our home fixture with UCD at The Showgrounds on September 16th.
Ticket sellers are going around the region selling tickets door to door and we appreciate the positive feedback they receive from our supporters.
Tickets are €10 each and full books of ten are €100.
Tickets are also available online at www.srfcdirect.com
The top prize this year is again, €5,000 cash which will be won by a lucky supporter.
The second prize is a huge €2,500 voucher for our friends at West Coast Orthodontics.
John McKeon from Petstop Discount Warehouse has once again donated a €1,000 voucher for his PetStop stores, which acts as our third prize.
Other prizes include hotel stays, vouchers for local establishments and tickets to a Liverpool game in Anfield.
We wish to thank all our Club volunteers for their magnificent help in selling tickets and we encourage anyone who hasn’t done so yet to buy a ticket and be in with a chance of winning.
Sligo Rovers suffered a 2-0 home defeat at the hand of St. Patrick’s Athletic at The Showgrounds on Friday night.
Manager John Russell came into the game without the services of striker Max Mata who departed the club on Thursday following his transfer to Shrewsbury Town. Mata was replaced in the starting eleven by Pedro Martelo who made his first start for the club up front.
Frank Liivak and Garry Buckley, returning to The Showgrounds for the first time since his injury, replaced David Cawley and John Mahon respectively in the team that drew 2-2 with Drogheda United last week. Mahon departed that game at half-time due to illness and hadn’t quite recovered. Pedro Martelo made his first start in attack.
The away side came into the game in good League form, just four points off leaders Shamrock Rovers and they narrowed that gap with three points thanks to goals from Chris Forrester who converted a penalty after Buckley took Mark Doyle down in the box and Sam Curtis after Jake Mulraney’s free-kick wasn’t dealt with in the Rovers’ box.
It didn’t tell the whole story was Rovers had some good play throughout the night but just didn’t create enough chances of note to make a mark on the game.
Stefan Radosavljevic went close from long range before Pedro Martelo’s header was saved by Dean Lyness in the Pats’ goal. Moments later was Rovers’ best chance when Martelo couldn’t keep his effort down from around 12 yards.
Mulraney was in the thick of it again but he couldn’t convert from close range after good work down the left from Doyle.
The second half was much like the first with Rovers having good possesion throughout the half but the visitors always looking threatening on the counter attack.
Conor Carty should have scored after Jake Mulraney hit the post and the ball rebounded to the striker who shot wide.
Fabrice Hartmann came on for the last half hour and he immediately looked a threat on the right hand side, running at the Saints back four at every opportunity.
He came close with ten minutes remaining with a curling effort which looked destined for the top corner but Lyness made a good save.
David Cawley and Karl O’ Sullivan were also brought on for Rovers in place of Frank Liivak and Lukas Browning as John Russell tried to get his side back into the game.
Chris Forrester hit the bar from distance as the game ticked toward 90 minutes but Rovers had their best chance of the night one minute into added time.
David Cawley’s shot from inside the area hit the arm of a Pats’ defender and Rob Harvey pointed to the spot.
Cawley grabbed the ball but sent his penalty wide of the right post and the visitors held on to secure the win.
Next up for Rovers is a trip to Oriel Park to place Dundalk next Friday night.
We host St. Patrick’s Athletic tonight at 7.45pm at The Showgrounds.
We outline all our Match Night information below:
Turnstiles:
Turnstiles open from 6.30pm.
All Children Under 12 must be accompanied by a paying adult. This is non-negotiable and it is the responsibility of parents and guardians to ensure their children are accompanied arriving to The Showgrounds and throughout the night.
All Children over the age of 12 must enter via the last turnstile on the left hand side which will be sign posted. This new turnstile is for Juveniles only and here they must pay €12 for Category One fixtures and €10 for Category Two fixtures. We remind you that this is an All-Ticket game and there is no entry without a ticket.
Please have your tickets ready for scanning to ensure a smooth and quick entry process. Any duplicate tickets will be refused and may lead to stadium bans for those in possession of one. Tickets will only scan once.
Away tickets are available through the St. Pat’s social media channels or at the away turnstile.
Seating:
Seating is first come, first served in all areas of the ground. Seats with names on them must be respected as these are Gold Season Ticket members who have paid for their seat to be reserved all season. Anyone found sitting in a seat that is not theirs will be asked to move.
Security:
Members of our security team will carry out on the spot checks on bags and persons entering the ground. Alcohol and Pyrotechnics are not allowed and will be confiscated on entry. We ask supporters to please help the club in this regard and refrain from attempting to get in with any prohibited items.
CCTV:
CCTV is again in operation throughout the evening using our CCTV system. The system was instrumental in the club being able to utilise footage from previous anti-social behaviour and, in turn issue this to Gardai and serve stadium bans to some supporters. Security personnel and An Garda Siochaina will be monitoring the system and anyone found to be behaving in a way which contravenes our ground rules will be removed and banned from attending future games.
Car Parking:
There are limited spaces available at The Showgrounds astro turf car park. This will be closed once full, which is expected to be early in the evening. Supporters should note the club have come to an agreement with Nazareth House for official Match Night use of their grounds which has over 200 parking spaces. There is a charge of €2, with proceeds towards the upkeep of their grounds.
Flares:
Leave your flares at home. These are not wanted and anyone found with flares will be banned from attending future matches. These cause needless fines for the club, money which is raised by our volunteers and fellow supporters.
Pitch:
It is an offence to enter the field of play at any stage. This includes children. It is parent/guardian’s responsibility to ensure children do not encroach on the pitch at any time.
We thank you for your co-operation.
Our senior womens team returned to training this week following an extended break for the Womens World Cup.
With no competitive action until an away game with Athlone Town on August 19th, it will give Manager Steve Feeney some time to prepare his side ahead of the return to action.
Following that fixture, Rovers will play host to Bonagee United in the Womens FAI Cup on Sunday August 27th at The Showgrounds at 2pm.
There are no fixtures in our Academy this coming weekend as the League has a free weekend across the country.
It will be a time for coaches and players to take a well earned break ahead of the return of fixtures next weekend.
Sligo Rovers host St. Patrick’s Athletic on Friday night at The Showgrounds in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division.
Rovers come into the game on the back of a 2-2 draw away to Drogheda United last week, having lead 2-0 and controlled large periods of the game.
St. Patrick’s Athletic most recently played a friendly against Cliftonville last Saturday following their Europa Conference League exit a fortnight ago and an FAI Cup win over Longford Town.
The Bit O’ Red must now do without the services of striker Max Mata who earlier completed a move to English League One side Shrewsbury Town.
Fabrice Hartmann is expected to play some part in the game following his return to the club on loan from RB Leipzig. Hartmann trained this week with his Bit O’ Red team-mates and could start.
Manager John Russell takes the positives of recent weeks into Friday’s game:
‘’It was disappointing to come away with only a draw last weekend as the players showed a good reaction after the cup defeat.
‘’Tomorrow night we welcome an in-form St Pats side to the Showgrounds. Our previous games against them have been tight encounters so we’re expecting another difficult game.
‘’It’s important we build on our last two home performances where we took maximum points. We are eager to try and build some momentum and with players starting to return to full fitness this will only enhance our chances’’.
Tickets for the game can be purchased on the gate on the night from 6.30pm or online in advance on srfcdirect.com
Russell is hoping for a good Showgrounds support as we go in search of our third straight home win:
‘’I was delighted to bring Fabrice back to the club and he has given everyone a real lift. He is a player of immense quality and is exactly the type of player we need in the final third.
‘’We’re hoping our supporters turn out in their numbers tomorrow night. They have been with us through the ups and downs this season and we need them now more than ever’’.
In team news, as announced earlier in the week, Will Fitzgerald is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a groin injury along with Garry Boylan who continues to recover from an ACL injury. Mark Byrne is still a few weeks away from a return.
Karl O’ Sullivan is back in the squad after his ankle injury and James Finnerty and Garry Buckley have shown no ill effects after their return in the last couple of weeks and are fit to play.
John Mahon is a doubt with illness but, it is hoped he will recover in time for the game.
Richard Brush and Daniel Lafferty are suspended for the next 2 and 3 games respectively.
