John Russell has described Saturday’s game with Cork City as the “biggest game in years” at the Showgrounds as the Bit O’Red host the Rebels in what is our final home game of the season.
Rovers sit level on points with both Galway United and Waterford with Sligo and the Blues having two games left, while the Tribesmen have three to go. Galway face Drogheda at home on Friday night while Waterford travel to St Pat’s at the same time, 24 hours before Rovers face Cork in Sligo.
United then face Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght on October 29th, three days before the season finishes with Rovers heading to Tallaght and Waterford and Galway set to face off at the RSC at the same time.
The stakes have never been higher this season and Rovers could give themselves a massive boost with a result against Ger Nash’s outfit on Saturday night, kick-off 7.45pm.
In team news, John Mahon returns having missed the defeat to Shels in Tolka last week with a foot injury. Winger Ryan O’Kane was ineligible for that game given the terms of his loan deal but is back in contention this weekend.
As of Friday afternoon, both Sean Stewart and Cian Kavanagh face late fitness tests after both were withdrawn with knocks in Dublin last week.
Talking to sligorovers.com ahead of the visit of the FAI Cup finalists, manager Russell says his players have been treating this game as any despite the magnitude of the occasion. He knows the importance of a good result on the final night under the Showgrounds’ floodlights and what a big, boisterous crowd can do to aid that.
“As staff and players, we are consistent in our actions”, he says.
“We train each week with the view to win the game the weekend coming, be it home or away or against the team at the top or the one at the bottom.
“We try to win the game and nothing changes this Saturday.
“Every game we want to win, particularly at home. One thing I’ve noticed as the months have gone on, is that we’re excited about playing each and every week, especially in front of our own fans and with everyone right behind us. Call it a cliché or whatever you want to call it but genuinely, our fans have played such a big part in all our performances this year.
“They’ve followed us in such big numbers from Tralee to Galway and Derry to Dalymount. Rovers have always had good numbers away from home but we’ve really noticed it this season. One more time, we’re asking that all our supporters come out to the Showgrounds and get behind our boys from the very start on Saturday night. This is the biggest game the club has been involved in, in years.
“We want and need that noise that will help us perform to our maximum capabilities.”
Cork will travel north west with a first FAI Cup final on their horizons since 2018. Their relegation is already confirmed, but Russell is expecting anything but a push-over.
“They won’t be downing tools whatsoever”, he continues.
“They have a cup final to look forward to, the biggest game of the season. Each and every one of their players will want to be involved at the Aviva and I expect them to come to Sligo all guns blazing. You don’t get many chances to play in a cup final so they’ll all want to impress Ger (Nash) and his staff.
“I said it a while ago but the battle between ourselves, Waterford and Galway is going to go down to the wire. We haven’t been relying on other teams to pick up results yet this season and this round of games will be no different. We’ll play to win as always and we want to be in as good a place as possible heading into the Shamrock Rovers game.”
David Goulden