Sligo Rovers v Derry City: Match Preview

 

Sligo Rovers v Derry City, League of Ireland Premier Division, Round 2, Sligo Showgrounds, Saturday 24^th February 2024

 

Goals from Ronan Boyce and new signing Pat Hoban saw Derry City begin 2024 with a win against Drogheda United last weekend. Only City and St Patrick’s Athletic recorded wins in the Premier Division on the opening day, meaning that the Candystripes sit top of the league going into Saturday’s fixture away to Sligo Rovers. The Bit’O’Red were unlucky to leave Dalymount with just a point last week, as James Clarke’s stoppage time equaliser rescued a point for Bohemians in a two-all draw.

 

It was a Derry City debut to remember for Pat Hoban as he bagged a goal and an assist against Drogheda. His link up play in the front-line gave Ronan Boyce space to open up and curve a left footed strike into the top corner from outside the box just one minute after half-time. A quarter of an hour later and Hoban had opened his own account for the season, reacting fastest inside the box to slot past Andrew Wogan after the Drogs’ keeper palmed a Will Patching strike into the path of the Galwegian forward. The Louth side responded just four minutes later as left-back Evan Weir, who left Drogheda for Walsall in the off-season before returning on loan, whipped a free kick off the crossbar and in. A deflection off the City wall left Brian Maher stranded, but it was certainly an impressive way to pull a goal back for the away side. Maher had a good game himself though, saving three shots including a Ryan Brennan penalty – his first league penalty save since denying Shelbourne’s Shane Farrell in June of last year.

 

Ruaidhrí Higgins will hope that the injury sustained by Mark Connolly isn’t too serious. The 32 year old centre back was replaced by Shane McEleney just before the Drogheda goal. It was good to see Cameron Dummigan and Adam O’Reilly return to the squad after niggling injuries, and the twenty or so minutes of action that Dan Kelly saw on his debut looked promising. Ciarán Coll also played the last ten, nearly five years to the day since his Derry City debut back in 2019. The absence of captain Patrick McEleney was the one glaring omission from the matchday squad, but it’s believed that the midfielder’s injury isn’t long-term.

 

Sligo Rovers were getting some criticism in the off-season for not strengthening a squad which had an unimpressive 2023. An eighth place finish saw them survive in the Premier Division, finishing six points above Cork City in the relegation play-off spot. Rovers won just two of their last twelve league games last term, one against UCD and the other which all but ended Derry City’s title hopes in late September. Their performance against Bohemians last week showed positive signs for 2024 though. After going behind just five minutes into the first half, goals from Reece Hutchinson and Fabrice Hartmann had Rovers ahead going into the break. If it wasn’t for a 94^th minute leveller, they would’ve headed home with all three points. There were some big departures last year, namely the moves of David Cawley to Finn Harps, Johan Brannefalk to Ariana, Lukas Browning Lagerfeldt to Gefle, Frank Liivak to Levadia Tallinn and the double switch of Karl O’Sullivan and Garry Buckley to Galway United. Derry man Danny Lafferty left the club to return home and join Institute whilst Greg Bolger rejoined Cork City. Striker Pedro Martelo left and goalkeeper Luke McNicholas’ loan to Wrexham was made permanent. This left John Russell with a fairly light squad going into 2024.

 

English winger Ellis Chapman joined Sligo from Cheltenham and seems to have been a shrewd acquisition. He scored a hat-trick in his first appearance – a 5-4 friendly win over Derry in January. The signings of JR Wilson and Simon Power from Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers respectively bring Premier Division experience and pace on either flank. Ed McGinty returned to the club on loan from Oxford United to solve their goalkeeping woes, whilst Wilson Waweru and Conor Malley signed from Galway United and Dundalk. Charlie Wiggett, who appeared at senior level in a friendly for Newcastle United last year, joined Rovers to give more options in defence – something which they’ll need after John Mahon suffered another unfortunate ACL injury. The return of Max Mata on loan from Shrewsbury Town is undoubtedly Russell’s biggest coup of the window though – the New Zealand international striker netted eleven goals in twenty three games last season in Sligo. He finished as the club’s top goalscorer despite leaving in the summer, Stefan Radosavljević came second with just five in the league. Fabrice Hartmann is always one to watch when Sligo Rovers play too. The German winger, who replaced now Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Matheus Cunha for RB Leipzig in a Europa League qualifier in 2018, has experience playing in the 2.Bundesliga and Dritte Liga in Germany. He scored a wonderful solo goal in Dalymount last week too.

 

Derry City haven’t won in Sligo since beating Rovers 2-1 back in August 2021. The Bit’O’Red have won three of the last four league meetings in the Showgrounds, with the other being a 0-0 draw in October 2022. Will Patching scored the decider in Derry’s last two league wins over Sligo Rovers too: a 95^th minute penalty back in July last year and the only goal of the game in September 2022. There haven’t been more than three goals scored in this fixture since City won 4-0 in 2017 and only once in the last thirteen meetings has the deficit been more than one goal. The aforementioned 5-4 friendly in January hints that the trend of low-scoring games between Derry and Sligo may be due to change however. Derry notoriously struggle in the Sligo Showgrounds but revenge may be on the mind of the City players after last time out. Home and away tickets are expected to fully sell out, so this one should be a good one.

Pól O'Hare - 22nd February 2024