Sligo Rovers are thrilled to announce that Colm Jinks will take over the role of Under 14 Head Coach for the 2023 season.

Colm has great experience in the game locally and nationally having played football for many years here at Sligo Rovers and with other League of Ireland clubs Athlone Town and Longford Town before returning to play local football here in Sligo.

Colm is currently the Football Facilitator at ATU Sligo and Head Coach of the Senior A Men’s team at the University, working with the best local and regional players. 

Colm returns to the club in a coaching capacity having previously worked at Assistant Manager for our Under 17 Men’s team and developing many of the players who have since broken into the first-team squad at the club and indeed further afield.

Head of Academy Conor O’ Grady:

‘’I am delighted Colm has joined as Under 14 Head Coach.

‘’Colm has a proven track record as a coach, he knows the club and has a vast knowledge of the best young players in the region.

‘’Having been previously involved with the Under 17’s, he played a big part in the development of the likes of Liam Kerrigan and Niall Morahan to name just two.

‘’The Under 14 age group is such an important one and the first entry point to the club and I feel Colm will fill this position well and help the club develop these players from a young age and set them up on their journey at the Academy’’.

Trials for the 2023 season begin this Saturday at The Sean Fallon Centre and Colm will get to work straight away as he looks to bring the best young players in the region to Sligo Rovers:

‘’I’m delighted to be offered the chance to be Head Coach of Sligo Rovers Under 14 squad next season. It’s great to be back in The Showgrounds again where I have being lucky enough to have worked with some fantastic players between 2014 and 2018 who came through our Academy and have gone on to play for Sligo Rovers, other clubs in the league and have made moves abroad.

‘’Assembling a new squad of players for the coming National League season is always challenging but one I’m looking forward to while making sure we get the best talent to represent Sligo Rovers on and off the pitch.

The club feel this is a very important age group for players to develop technically and build foundations for them to progress through the club’s pathway and hopefully one day into the first team’’. 

Colm will have a look at his prospective squad tomorrow at The Sean Fallon Centre as trials begin for the 2023 season. Players from all over the region will attend in the hope to sign ahead of next year.

Sligo Rovers Womens Manager Steve Feeney has been shortlisted for Manager of The Year for 2022, following his sides impressive first season at Women’s National League level.

Feeney took charge of Rovers last December ahead of the start of pre-season and has lead the side to a comfortable 8th place finish, finishing up with twenty points.

The squad was assembled within a number of weeks and compromised of players from both inside and outside the club with a number of current Under 17 or 19 players from our Academy being part of the squad.

Emma Doherty, our top goalscorer in 2022 with 11 goals, has been nominated for Young Womens Player of The Year for 2022 after an impressive season in front of goal.

Doherty has been capped at Irish Under 19 level throughout the season and was also part of a Republic of Ireland home based training camp back in the summer with Senior Manager Vera Pauw.

The awards will be presented to the eventual winners at the end of season awards night at The Gibson Hotel on November 24th.

Sligo Rovers are seeking applications for the role as Head Coach of our Women’s Under 17 team for the 2023 season.

The Bit O’ Red Under 17 Women enjoyed another strong year on the pitch in 2022 under then Head Coach Aaron O’ Connor, reaching the League Semi-Final where they lost to Cork City at The Showgrounds last month.

The position of Under-17 Women’s Head Coach is key to the ongoing development of our elite Academy players and will play a significant role in their development through this team and onto our Under 19’s and or Womens Senior team. The role will provide valuable experience for the successful candidate of working with an elite group of players in an professional environment.

Job Description

– Help club achieve its vision to ‘Build a brand that is associated with excellence on and off the pitch for women’s football, to be considered as an example of excellence and best practice, and one of the major developer of players within the country at underage, and eventually senior level’.
– The development and nurturing of a pool of elite players to facilitate their current and future success as individuals and as a team.
– Organise, plan and deliver a suitable player development programme in line with the FAI and Sligo Rovers coaching syllabus.
– Uphold the clubs code of conduct and implement club’s vision on and off the pitch.
– Set high standards for the players both on and off the pitch.
– Create and maintain appropriate communication with players / parents / clubs / leagues and any stakeholders relevant to the team
– To work with the media in any area regarding Sligo Rovers FC.
– Ensure the club adheres to FAI & Women’s National League rules and regulations and competition rules. . 
– To ensure that all delivery satisfies the clubs safeguarding and welfare procedures 

Job Specification:
The ideal candidate will have skills and experience in the following areas:

Essential Criteria
– A current valid UEFA B Licence holder as a minimum.
– Successful candidate will be subjected to garda vetting clearance. 
– Up to date Safeguarding 1 / Child Welfare Certificate.
– An ability to produce verbal and written reports.
– Access to both email and phone.
– Experience and enthusiasm for coaching and mentoring elite young players and coaches.

Desirable Criteria
– Administrative and organisational skills.
– Previous experience of coaching in female game.
– Coach mentoring experience.

Abilities / Skills / Knowledge: 
– Has the leadership ability to inspire a team to play to their maximum potential.
– Ability to communicate and implement club’s philosophy as head coach.
– Excellent communication skills with the ability to build meaningful, strong strategic relationships with players, staff and officials.
– Understanding of learning, development and high performance with a proven ability to create optimum and challenging learning environments for players.
– Strong existing relationships within women’s football in North-West.
– Must be available for games / training at weekends and evenings.
To apply for this position please email your CV with a cover letter by Monday, November 14^th at 5pm to Conor O’ Grady, Head of Academy, Sligo Rovers FC at ogrady.27@hotmail.com  

The final game of the Women’s National League (WNL) season as DLR Waves took the points with a comfortable 5-1 victory at the expense of Sligo Rovers.

The Bit O’Red handed out player of the year awards before kick-off in what was a historic inaugural campaign, Lauren Boles took the player of the year award and Emma Doherty scooped the young player of the year accolade.  

Both sides had early chances with Katie Malone firing over for DLR and Emma Doherty denied by Eve Badana at the other end, all in the opening five minutes.

DLR looked the more likely to score in those opening exchanges and in the ninth minute the home defence was exposed when Malone found some space in the penalty area and finished well.

The Bit O’Red created a chance almost immediately, but Emma Doherty hurried her shot and Badana saved comfortably.


The remainder of the half was well-contested with DLR enjoying periods or dominance, but failing to add to the tally while Sligo Rovers threatened on the break without creating any clearcut chances.

Katie Melly had a great chance to get Sligo Rovers back into contention in the 55th minute, but her shot produced a spectacular save from Badana and then DLR took control and went 3-0 in front.

Kate Mooney scored twice in the space of 10 second-half minutes, one from the penalty spot and one a fine individual effort before the hour mark, she completed her hat-trick in the 67th minute to give her side a comfortable 4-0 advantage.

Substitute Amber Cosgrove added a fifth for DLR with a super strike in the 79th minute before Lauren Boles found the net for the hosts seven minutes from time.


Sligo Rovers – Amy Mahon; Orna O’Dowd, Amy Hyndman, Gemma McGuinness, Lauren Boles, Emma Doherty, Katie Melly, Kerri O’Hara, Paula McGrory, Amy Boyle Carr, Aife Haran.
Subs – Sarah Kiernan for Hyndman, Aoife Brennan for O’Hara and Ciara Henry for Melly all 63 mins, Amy Roddy for Haran and Lauren McLellan for McGrory both 75m



DLR Waves – Eve Badana; Louise Corrigan, Fiona Donnelly, Kerri Letmon,
Katie Malone, Aoife Brophy, Mia Dodd, Jane McKevitt, Sophie Watters, Kate Mooney, Shauna Carroll. Subs – Carla McManus for Mooney and Robyn Bolger for McKevitt both 68 mins, Catherine Cronin for Carroll and Amber Cosgrove for Malone both 79m, Rugile Auskainyte for Badana 85m.

Referee – Marc Lynch
Assistant-referees – Darren Carey, Darren Corcoran,
Fourth official – Alan Carey.

Sligo Rovers ended our home season in this year’s SSE Airtricity League with a narrow 1-0 win over St Patrick’s Athletic on Friday night at The Showgrounds.

The win secures a top five finish for Rovers.

John Russell made two changes to the side that drew 0-0 with Derry City on Monday, with Greg Bolger and Colm Horgan replacing Robbie Burton and Shane Blaney respectively.

The game started with the visitors wasting a good chance for the opening goal. Nando Pijnaker overhit a back pass to Richard Brush and the goalkeeper was chased down by Pats’ striker Eoin Doyle who just couldn’t squeeze the ball home.

The remainder of the half was pretty even with both sides pushing forward as much as possible, the next best chance again probably falling to the away side as Chris Forrester went through one on one with Brush but his effort didn’t have the legs to roll over the line and Lewis Banks cleared.

Kailin Barlow went close for Rovers soon after but it remained scoreless at the break.

Seven minutes into the second half came the game’s biggest talking point. Aidan Keena dribbled into the penalty area and Paddy Barrett closed him down and was adjudged to have fouled the Rovers’ striker and referee John McLaughlin pointed to the spot and gave Rovers a penalty.

Keena picked himself up and blasted the ball high into the net to give The Bit O’ Red the lead.

With Dundalk ahead against Bohemians, St Pat’s knew only a win would do if they were to have any hopes of a top three finish. Tim Clancy pushed everyone forward for the last ten minutes but a combination of strong defending and good goalkeeping from Brush meant that Rovers never really came under a massive threat and saw out the game comfortably enough meaning John Russell’s side are now guaranteed fifth spot in the table.

We play our last game of the season away to Bohemians next Sunday at 7pm at Dalymount Park.

Our Academy Player of The Year awards were presented last night at our Senior Men’s game against St. Patrick’s Athletic.

The winners were:

Under 19 Men’s: Sean McAteer who was presented with his award by Head of Academy Conor O’ Grady. Sean has been impressive in midfield this season and has secured a scholarship at ATU Sligo, which began in September.

Under 19 Women’s: Katie McGuire was selected as Under 19 Women’s Player of The Year and presented with her award by Brian McIntyre from Overstock, who sponsor the team. Katie finished top goalscorer in 2022 for the team with an impressive 15 goals.

Under 17 Men’s: Daire Patton, who attends Summerhill College was the winner of this award. Daire was given the award by Bit O’ Red goalkeeper Luke McNicholas before kick-off. Daire plays in midfield and chipped in with a number of goals in 2022.

Under 15: Ballymote native James Lavin was the winner of our Under 15 Player of The Year this season. James is a strong tackling defensive player and impressed throughout the year with a string of good performances. James received his award from Luke McNicholas also.

Under 14: Jamie O’ Malley was our top scorer at Under 14 Level in 2022, scoring 8 goals competitively. Jamie picked up his award off Luke McNicholas also, just before the game.

We wish to thank all our Academy sponsors:

Ej Menswear

Ivor Parke Paintors and Decorators

Overstock

Avenue Mould

O Connor Cabins

Paul Gallagher

Sligo Rovers are aware of incidents which took place at half time during last night’s 1-0 win over St Patrick’s Athletic at The Showgrounds.

The incident has been captured on our CCTV cameras and we have identified a number of those involved and they will be subject to lengthy stadium bans.

The Showgrounds is a welcoming, family friendly stadium and incidents like this will not be tolerated and those involved in such incidents are not welcome at our club.

We wish to thank our supporters for their support of the club in 2022 and we will not allow our supporters’ fantastic reputation be tarnished by a minority of supporters who come to cause trouble.

Ends.

Striker Emma Doherty has been selected as Wehrly Bros/Sligo Rovers Young Womens Player of The Year for 2022.

The Donegal striker has been one of the standout strikers in the league this season and finished the year as Sligo Rovers’ top scorer with 11 goals so far, before this afternoon’s game with DLR Waves in which she will be looking to add to her tally.

Emma has also secured a scholarship at ATU Sligo this year which sees her extend her Bit O’ Red stay for three seasons.

Congrats, Emma.

Midfielder Lauren Boles has been named Wehrly Bros / Sligo Rovers Womens Player of The Year for 2022.

Boles has been an ever present in the Bit O’ Red team this season, with many top performances throughout.

She topped the polls in an online fans vote this week which sees her take home the award.

Boles will be presented with the award this afternoon ahead of our final game of the 2022 season.

Congrats, Lauren.

Manager Steve Feeney assesses the 2022 Women’s National League season for Sligo Rovers

Steve Feeney was handed the manager’s bib for the debut season of Sligo Rovers in the Women’s National League only a week before Christmas Day 2021.

The first manager of the Sligo Rovers Women’s team was tasked with assembling a panel some 80 days before the scheduled kick-off against high-flying Dublin club Peamount Utd in early March.

Some eight months and 27 games later (26 in the WNL and one FAI Cup), Feeney will send his players out for the final game of the season against DLR Waves on home turf at the Showgrounds this Saturday.

There were lots of highlights and lowlights in a campaign that brought the team to venues in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Athlone and Wexford as the WNL expanded to 10 teams with the inclusion, for the first time, of Sligo Rovers.

At all times, Feeney adopted a positive demeanour on the sideline and was always looking for areas where the team could improve.

“There were some heavy defeats, some games where we could have won and didn’t and some games that we were given no chance in and we won,” he commented.

“It’s easy to say that the wins at home against Shelbourne and Wexford were the highlights, and they were important.

“At the start of the season no one involved in the WNL would have given us any chance at all against either of those clubs and against most of the other clubs as well.

“However, the biggest highlight for me was the fact that towards the end of this season, this month, we were going to places like Shelbourne and Wexford with the expectation that we might get results.

“The girls have given a good account of themselves throughout the season and at this stage, the last game of 2022, everyone is now aware that they won’t get it easy against Sligo Rovers,” he added.

The commitment that was, and is, required from everyone involved, but especially the younger players, is not lost on the manager either.

“It was a huge commitment for the players, almost 30 competitive games, training started back in January and we are now at the end of October, realistically that’s 10 months of training and playing,” he pointed out.

“Obviously, for the players there is the two nights a week with us, but they also have to do their own training and recovery sessions, watching diet and all that sort of thing.

“That would have been new to a lot of the girls, they would have been in good condition anyway, but it’s a serious step up to play week-in, week-out in the WNL

“The players are a credit to themselves, they took on what was a big challenge, a big commitment, and you can see that they took it on as they showed gradual improvement throughout the season, that speaks volumes about them as individuals.

“It’s also great to see players like Emma Doherty, Kerri O’Hara and Alice Lillie getting recognised for international selection, that’s not just this season, but over the last few years, they’re three very good players.

“What stands out about that trio, and it’s also true across the squad, is the attitude and the willingness to keep going in a game, even when it’s not going your way,” he added.

Looking to the future, and more immediately to next season, Feeney is well aware that the task is not going to get any easier simply because the team has enjoyed a reasonable debut campaign in the WNL.

“Hopefully, we can push on and build for next season, but it doesn’t follow that we will automatically improve just because we have the first season behind us,” he stressed.

“We will have to work harder if we want to improve our position, finishing eighth this season, but it won’t be easy, that’s for certain.

“This year we were an unknown quantity, the new team in the WNL, next season we will be just one of the teams trying to improve our position, all the other teams will have the same goal.

“One positive will be the fact that we have a decent panel of players, we also have a good idea now of what to expect.

“We have the chance now to get organised in the off-season and get a proper pre-season into most of the players.

“This season, most of the girls only joined up a few weeks before kick-off and indeed some of them signed a week before the start, that wasn’t ideal.

“A better preparation will help us, but that’s all, it will help us, but it doesn’t mean we will improve on that aspect alone, we will have to find improvement in all sectors.

“We probably lacked a bit of conditioning early in the season, we won’t have that issue for 2023.

“For this season, I’m grateful to everyone who was involved and the commitment and effort that everyone made, it would be nice to get a big crowd for this last game of the season and to get a result as well,” he concluded.