REWIND: Sligo Weekender, May 8th, 2007. Shamrock Rovers v Sligo Rovers

A semi will decide ......everything Published in The Sligo Weekender, October, 3rd, 2012

A semi will decide ......everything

JJ Devaney

 An FAI cup semi-final between fierce rivals Sligo Rovers and Shamrock is as big a fixture as is possible to imagine in Irish domestic soccer. However with Sligo Rovers effectively relinquishing their hold on the Airtricity Premier League trophy with a 0-0 draw at home to Cork City on Monday night, this FAI Cup semi-final takes on even more import for the bit o’ red. With the League trophy heading to Inchicore and the EA Sports cup (the League cup) safely ensconced in Tallaght stadium Sligo Rovers will look to bring the Ford FAI Cup back to the Showgrounds for the third time in 4 years.

Having appeared in 3 FAI Cup finals and winning two between 2009 and 2011 you could be forgiven for thinking that the cup is of lesser importance to a Sligo Rovers team that won its first league championship in 35 years last season. The truth is that with such a large and talented squad it is vital that Sligo Rovers aren’t just competing for silverware but winning silverware each season and this season the FAI Cup remains the only real chance of achieving this. Of course all managers will tell you that the most important game is the next game but when you consider how disappointing the last game was, and the fact it effectively brought down the curtain on the league campaign, then psychologically Sunday’s game becomes massive for both fans and supporters alike. It is a season defining encounter. 

Sunday’s match will help define how supporters view the season past and will set the tone for the forthcoming campaign. There was palpable restlessness amongst the natives in the Showgrounds on Saturday night. Some of it was justified, some of it was hysterical. The league title defence has been a disappointment and the crowds of the last few weeks have reflected this. You can expect there will be a bumper crowd in the Showgrounds for the cup semi final on Sunday yet for Monday nights league game, which would have left Rovers just two points adrift of St Pats had they won, there was a very disappointing turnout of just 1600*. It appears the fans had conceded the league title defence was over prior to the weekend’s double header.

Sligo Rovers fans have been spoiled with success the last few years; of that there is no doubt. With a top domestic trophy being delivered to the Showgrounds every year since 2009 and the assembly of a squad of considerable depth and ability, the hope of success has been replaced by a demand for it by many fans. This is the reality for manager Ian Barraclough and his team on Sunday. A place in the FAI cup final in the Aviva stadum awaits; Sligo expects.

Legend of the Raff. Published in the Sligo Weekender, October 3rd, 2013.

 JJ Devaney pays homage to Raffaele Creatro and a lunchtime soccer league where the Sligo Rovers legend made his first impact

Raffaele Cretaro made his 388^th appearance for Sligo Rovers on Friday night and jumped into second place in the all-time appearance list just behind Tony Fagan. Raff was suitably proud of his achievement in his post match comments but it was the managers thoughts on the Tubbercurry man’s special night that reminded me of days gone by and appearances by Raff that weren’t included in the 388.

Ian Barraclough remarked of Raff as being a ‘true legend’ of Sligo Rovers FC but I first remember Cretaro as a legend in his own lunchtime. It was easy to mention his brilliant brace of goals in the game that clinched the title last year at home to St Pats but it was equally easy to recall our shared triumph on the crumbling gravel of the Marist Secondary school, Tubbercurry in vice-principal Oliver Lannon’s 1^st and 2^nd year boys lunchtime league. Mr Lannon presented the winners prize of 20 pound to us but really our victory was assured in the four v four league when the name Raffaele Cretaro was added to the names JJ Devaney, James Frain and Joseph Corscadden. None of us we were bad players but with Raff you always felt you had the advantage.

Back then you couldn’t have predicted how he would weave his name into the rich tapestry of Sligo Rovers football club but you certainly knew he was different. The way he struck the ball was just better, cleaner and harder than anybody else. Playing for the school one day in Sean Fallon Park he rattled one off the crossbar from 30 yards. The bus driver on the way home couldn’t get his head around the ferocity generated by the diminutive 13 year old. We lost to one of the ‘townie schools’ 2-0 that day but even then Cretaro was the stand out man. His presence and ability reduced the inferiority complex of our country school team when faced against those for whom soccer was the singular sport.

As we stood in the tunnel chatting on Friday night Raf recalled his goal scoring debut for Rovers against Monaghan in September 2000 under then manager Tommy Cassidy. A few months earlier in June Raff turned out for his boyhood club Real Tubber in an end of season south Sligo junior soccer tournament called the ‘Jack Davey Cup’. I played for Chaffpool Rovers when we faced Real Tubber in our second game and we won 4-2. Raff was destined for the Showgrounds and so the victory was all the sweeter over our local rivals. Looking back and thinking about all he has achieved since adds an extra gloss to those memories.

388 appearances seems a smaller number than I expected but then you can’t include the day he briefly interrupted a ritual hammering in the Connacht Minor championship at the hands of Joe Bergin and his Galway teammates by coming off the bench to score two points in 3 minutes for Sligo. You see to those of us who watched his rise from the beginning it’s easy to count many more stories, memories and appearances for Raff.

When Ian Barraclough talks of Raff as ‘a true legend’ he is correct. The word ‘legend’ comes from the Latin ‘things to be read’ and Raff has surely written his name into the annals of Rovers history for future generations to read about. Raff is the heir apparent to the mantle of Johnny Kenny for the rural Sligo Rovers supporter. He is one of our own. We all have a story about the rise of Raf around here. We all take particular pride in his achievement. So here’s to Raf! 388 appearances and counting, 68 goals and a thousand memories. 

Domestic flaws don't cut it at a higher level. Published in The Sligo Weekender online, July 18, 2013.

Domestic flaws don’t cut it at higher level

 July 18, 2013

Champions League Analysis

JJ Devaney

IT is fair to say when you take the step up to the Champions League you really don’t want to concede from a similar long ball to the one that caught you out against your domestic title rivals two days previous.

For the second game running Evan McMilan struggled when turned under a high ball and while Molde striker Daniel Chukwu had much to do from the initial mistake it was a terribly frustrating way to concede.

Sligo Rovers were nervous defensively all night against a team that did not pressurise the Airtricity League Premier Division champions’ back four when in possession.  But for some excellent first-half saves from Gary Rogers, this tie could have been dead before the second leg in Norway next week.

The home side’s midfield was a mixed bag of industry and graft – but little craft. The Rovers’ midfield five certainly stifled Molde’s abilty to pick passes and play, but often the hustle and bustle of Lynch and Connelly came up short when subtler skills were needed.

A lack of width hampered the attack and, with no Alan Keane overlaps as an outlet, it was often all huff and puff in the centre of the park.  Djilali and Keane’s late introductions set the midfield free to stretch Molde but it was too late to redeem the first leg tie.

With his strike partner from Sunday’s Airtricity League Premier Division game, David McMilan, operating in a wide right berth, Anthony Elding cut a lonely figure against a combative Molde back four.

One can scarcely recall even a half-chance for the Boston native and even when Rovers had a brief purple period in the first-half, where Lee Lynch delivered consecutive crosses into the box, Elding was still outnumbered.

Going a goal down didn’t prompt Ian Baraclough to change things up front and so Elding toiled on in the midsummer sun without once causing the Molde defence any problems. 

Rovers must dare to break the mould. Published in the Sligo Weekender online Champions League edition. July 18th, 2013

Rovers must dare to break the mould

Champions League Comment

JJ Devaney

OLE Gunnar Solksjaer arrived for the postmatch press conference after his Molde FK side had beaten Sligo Rovers 1-0 and all I could think about was his stellar performance for Manchester United against Newcastle at Old Trafford in the 2002-03 season.  Molde FK didn’t distract me.

This Molde collection doesn’t bear any of the assassin qualities that their manager possessed as a player.

For a Scandinavian side they didn’t bring huge physicality or power.  Not that they should resemble their Viking forefathers and score three thunderous goals, set fire to The Showgrounds and rampage a trail through the Ox Mountains via Ballisodare.

SUPPORT: Natasha Carty, Lauren Feeney and Stacey Carty were at The Showgrounds for Wednesday’s game.

No, not these fjord-loving Norsemen.  They were really quite ordinary.

Unfortunately, Rovers manager Ian Baraclough picked a team for an imagined foe and not the opposition that presented itself underneath the hot July sun at the splendid Sligo venue.

Despite his assertion that it was ‘very much the right decision’ not to start Alan Keane and Djilali, one could argue that Baraclough missed out on a golden opportunity to bring a goal into next week’s away leg in Norway.

Such was the impact of the wide pairing of Keane and Djilali when introduced that one wonders what may have happened if Baraclough had started the duo.

The manager believed Djilali and Keane may not have had the space to exploit a fresh Molde defence and that, indeed, may have been the case but the real question is what was to be gained by holding them back?

Molde’s goal came not from incisive, flowing football but from a Rovers mistake.  Ditto the volley by Chukwu that was so expertly saved by Rodgers.

Even when Berget inexplicably smashed the ball off the outside of the post it was from Rovers needlessly surrendering possession.

Tactical conservatism meant sacrificing a marauding full-back in Keane for a centre-half out of position (Henderson) and loading the midfield with busy grafters like Conneely but no creative penetration.

As The Showgrounds watched Djilali twist the Molde full-back into knots with 10 minutes left, the gaping, gnawing feeling was of an opportunity missed.  What if we had a REAL go at them?

Baraclough’s selections screamed not of the ability of his own team but rather of what the opposition might offer.

In his postmatch comments Barclough said: “With a little more belief and positivity in our play – the lads know they can go and play at that level against this side – in the second leg you may see a different belief in ourselves.”

For the next leg the belief must come from the manager and it must be reflected in his team selection.

How will the Rovers script end? Published in The Sligo Weekender, June 20, 2013.

JJ Devaney goes to the movies as he reflects on Sligo Rovers' efforts to retain their crown.

Saturday night’s comprehensive 5-2 win over UCD at the Showground brought the curtain down on act one of Sligo Rovers defence of their title. As Rovers players and fans alike enter into the mid season interval they will both be considering the same thing: In what shape is our main protagonist, Sligo Rovers FC as the curtain is drawn for the intermission.

Sligo Rover’s season so far has resembled one of the summer’s Hollywood blockbusters in many respects. There has been something of an Oscar winning formula to it: We begin with our hero at the top of his game. With most of his enemies vanquished from early on the seeds of self doubt are sown as dark forces contrive to take him down. Defeat at St Pat’s sees our hero lurch into a spiral of bad form and the kind of mid-film crisis of confidence that is the hallmark of almost all of Tom Cruise’s films. Our hero clings onto hope in the shape of the home win against Derry and finishes the opening salvo with a morale boosting win against UCD. The scene is set for a comeback in the second half where our main protagonist draws on old inspirations and reminded by familiar friends (Danny North, perhaps) of the glory days he strives for one more dramatic stab at victory.

 Our plot even has a flawed character that Martin Scorsese would struggle to write. Anthony Elding, the early season all-action hero has to face his disciplinary demons. Can he find redemption and play a leading role in a second half comeback? Can he slay the red demon that has dogged his early season exploits? 

With a body count to rival any of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s films can Manager Ian Barraclough achieve Total Recall for North, Cretaro, Ventre and Lynch? Will the return of the four ‘Rovers-oir Dogs’ jump start the season and cause carnage to the rest of the league?

 There are so many questions to ponder as we munch on our mid season break popcorn. Even more questions appear on screen with the rise of Stephen Kenny’s Dundalk from plucky upstarts to title contenders. St. Pats, Derry City, the Rovers and now Dundalk are coming together to create a title race as complicated and convoluted as Christopher Nolan's  ‘Inception’.

 Hopefully Rovers can maintain the excellent attendances at the Showgrounds that we saw in the first half of the season. With a 5 goals on Saturday night maybe the boss’s mantra is ‘If you score goals, they will come’. Without the fans, Rovers have no chance of making sure that the Showgrounds remains the ‘Field of Dreams’ that it was last season.

Price of Ros Loss. Published in The Sligo Weekender, July 2013

JJ Devaney says that Kevin Walsh's tenure began to fade following the Connacht Final loss to Roscommon in 2010

Kevin Walsh’s 5 year reign as Sligo manager ended on Saturday evening just outside Dungiven, Co. Derry. There were no tactical moves left for Kevin Walsh except to deny the media assembled in the corridors of Derry’s magnificent centre of excellence first word of his departure. When the ‘Sunday Game’ Twitter account released that Walsh had stepped down few were very surprised. Kevin Walsh told the media he would ‘see what happens’ regarding his future and then resigned minutes later. It was a final dummy, one last drop of the shoulder to sidestep a question he has somehow avoided for the last three years.

 Losing to London in Ruislip should not be the defining memory of the Walsh era. That late, late goal chance for Pat Hughes that hit the crossbar was not the turning point. The London defeat was the logical end of the downward spiral that had begun at the Connacht Championship on the 18^th of July, 2010. From the moment Neil Ewing fouled Roscommon’s Johnathan Duggan under the stand in McHale Park to set up Donie Shine for the Connacht title winning free this Sligo team under Kevin Walsh has been in free-fall. Rising to Division 2 with back to back league promotions in 09 and 10 and a heartening fight against Kerry in the 2009 All-Ireland qualifiers were the stimulus for historic defeats of Galway and Mayo in the Connacht championship in 2010. Since then it has been a litany of poor results and heavy defeats for Sligo under Kevin Walsh. Losing that Connacht championship final was traumatic and represents the single biggest missed opportunity for silverware in Sligo football history. To beat Mayo and Galway in one Connacht championship campaign and then lose to Roscommon in the final was a blow from which Walsh and his dressing room never recovered.

 It took a defeat to London to bring into sharp focus the decline of the Sligo team but really the results of the last three years speak for themselves and make one wonder how the Sligo County board allowed Kevin Walsh to make it to Ruislip as manager. The axe could have fallen after the decimation of his team against Down in the qualifiers in 2010 or after only scoring 4 points against Kildare in last years qualifiers or defeat to Wicklow in Aughrim in 2011 after being eliminated from the Connacht championship by a Leitrim team that hadn’t won a championship game in 3 years. Sligo also nearly returned to division 4 football after a wretched league campaign this year. 2012’s defeat of Galway in the Connacht semi-final was but a brief respite.

London may have been the lowest point but that was a defeat three years in the making. Kevin Walsh’s last 3 years as manager have been an exercise in postponing what should have been inevitable as his team sleep-walked through a mire of terrible performances. Defeat to London and surrender to Derry were only the final chapter in what has been Kevin Walsh’s long goodbye.

Cool Head on a Hot Night. Published in The Sligo Weekender. April, 2013

After a fractious but thoroughly absorbing night in the Showgrounds the first question that springs to mind is ‘where to begin?’ Firstly it may be no harm to debunk a myth that floated around for a time in the press box immediately after the game. The idea that Drogheda United deserved anything from the game. They really didn’t. Drogheda took the lead and created little after that and created even less after Ross Gaynor’s ridiculous sending off.  Rovers considering their numerical disadvantage dominated the game and thoroughly deserved their lead when Aaron Greene slotted home on 90 minutes.

This was a Rovers we haven’t seen terribly often this year in the Airtricity league. Apart from the listless defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic we haven’t witnessed Rovers v Adversity. 1-0 down at the break with their top scorer misfiring and a decent away team not allowing them to get into a rhythm Rovers really rose to each and every challenge in the second half. Joey Ndo may have been a little bit rusty at times but he certainly seemed to liberate Cawley and Lynch in the midfield, an area which Rovers totally dominated. His ability to keep the ball and release wide players was crucial in particular when Rovers went down to 10 men.

Ross Gaynor’s sending off clearly incensed both manager and player but neither were forthcoming in the post match interviews about what exactly happened. All we can deduce is that Gaynor may have made some gesture toward the away fans in the Jinks avenue stand and was sent off by referee Anthony Buttimer for said interaction. While no player should get involved with the fans in such a manner the Drogheda fans were clearly looking for a more ‘active’ part in proceedings all night long. It may be logistically awkward but if there was a way to house the away fans somewhere else it should be investigated as in their current home they are too close to the pitch and players, leaving the way open for the more troublesome elements of the away support to wreak havoc.

Rovers work very hard after the sending off and at long last we saw some indication as to why Kieran Djilali was brought to the club. His slaloming late burst set up what we all thought would be Rovers equalizer from Aaron Greene and he certainly gave Drogs more to think about than the ineffective Millien. Drogs equalizer was disappointing considering the graft and endeavor Rovers had shown. The manager noted this fight as a positive in his post match comments: ‘At 10 men we could have downed tools, given ourselves excuses and said ‘it’s not our night’ but we didn’t and that’s a great quality to have’.

Rovers showed much quality on Saturday night, much more than their opponents but in the final third you get the feeling that they long for the return of Raf Cretaro and Danny North. Anthony Elding’s goalscoring has been superb but he needs a partner that can offer something different to the Rovers creative forces of Ndo, Lynch, Cawley and Cretaro. North fits that bill perfectly.

Tempers were frayed all around the Showgrounds on Saturday night but it was refreshing to see that Ian Barraclough kept the coolest of heads in the heat of battle. Experience has thought him no doubt that Saturday night was only one of many battles to be faced in what is fast becoming a very engaging season. 

Rovers v Cork City. TV View (Published in The Sligo Weekender, April 2013

Rovers v Cork City. TV View.

JJ Devaney

There were few surprises from Saturday’s Airtricity League showdown between Sligo Rovers and Cork City. Rovers won, again. Anthony Elding scored again. And in TV land Eoin Hand was miserable. The only real surprise was the line up for RTE’s coverage of the game. Aidan Power was in the hot seat usually frequented by Peter Collins or on occasion Dara Maloney. Power, more usually associated in the past with children’s TV and light entertainment has been struggling to get work and to be fair he didn’t do a terrible job ably abetted by former UCD player and MNS regular, Tony McDonnell.

You just got the feeling that Power, despite his smooth delivery, was reading from a template: ‘Sligo Rovers are doing really well and Elding is amazing’. It was hard to shake the idea that that was the sum total of his League of Ireland knowledge and at any moment he was going to invite the viewers to text in the Sligo Rovers player they thought looked most like a member of Westlife. Apart from that it was pretty plain sailing for the studio duo with McDonnell only once losing the run of himself by describing Elding and Cretaro’s partnership as ‘subliminal’.

There is nothing ‘subliminal’ about Anthony Elding for Sligo Rovers fans. His impact on the club’s early season good fortune has been clear. It’s fair to say that he may not have had his best game on Saturday in front of the TV cameras but he scored again in another Rovers win. RTE may have given Elding the big build-up in the pre-match analysis but resident soccer grump Eoin Hand wasn’t in the generous mood and had some choice words for the former Leeds striker particularly in the second half. Hand’s first salvo against Elding came mid-way thru the second half: ‘He is quite a lazy player really’ Hand opined. It was interesting that Eoin Hand finished that sentence with the word ‘really’ because ‘really?’ is how most Rovers fans would have greeted that opinion of our new striker.

Eoin Hand wasn’t finished there in his diatribe against Elding. ‘He really is the quintessential journey-man’. At a rough count Eoin Hand had 13 clubs in his playing career so I suppose he is well qualified to make such an assertion. Finally, after Elding rolled home the penalty, his 9^th of the season, Hand delivered the coup de grace describing Elding as ‘ineffectual’. If doubling his sides lead against a good side in the league is ‘ineffectual’ then Rovers manager Ian Barraclough will take ‘ineffectual’ all season long.

Hand has always struck me as particularly miserable pundit. Adrian Eames explained the drop in Rovers attendance was down to the miserable blustery weather. Those Rovers fans who watched from their couches might as well have been outside in the Showgrounds because on Saturday, via television, Eoin Hand brought the misery indoors. 

TIME FOR CHANGE. TIME TO GO, KEVIN.

TIME FOR CHANGE. TIME TO GO, KEVIN.

London have beaten Sligo in the Connacht Championship and it really isn’t a shock. RTE might call it the ‘first shock of the summer’ but if you’ve seen the 2013 version of Sligo you will know different. Kevin Walsh knew it last week as he got the excuses in early declaring how Sligo struggled against ‘lower ranked teams’. Ross Donovan gave an angst ridden, confidence sapping interview to Newstalk about the perils of playing London in Ruislip. Some pitfalls included airport security, the plane landing and staying in a hotel. This wasn’t a pair of rookies talking; this was the manager and the team captain. It appeared the only white flags that Sligo would be raising against the exiles would be flags of surrender.

Sligo’s one point Connacht Championship defeat to London may be the most significant loss of Kevin Walsh’s tenure but in truth somewhere between the FBD league final and the Divison 3 hammering by Monaghan in Clones Kevin Walsh lost the dressing room. His players lost faith in the training, in the team selections but most of all in the manager himself. Kevin Walsh asked for more of a commitment from the players in the Autumn. No player who did not give a full winter time and spring time commitment would be considered for selection for Sligo. In discarding Eamonn O’Hara based on this diktat, Kevin Walsh alienated many in the squad with a massive u-turn when drafting in Mayo-man James Kilcullen in the midst of a relegation campaign. Sligo’s need for a midfielder was acute but at what risk including Kilcullen?

On Saturday night, while Sligo were settling into their hotel in London, James Killcullen was playing for Ballaghaderreen against Aghamore in the Mayo Senior championship. He would be a second half substitute against London as things got desperate. He made an impact at midfield were Gilmartin and Taylor had singularly failed to control a rampant London engine room. Had Killcullen started maybe Sligo would have fared better at midfield and therefore controlled the flow of play. He didn’t start because ultimately his commitment lay with his club side in his own county championship. In spurning 20 years of commitment from Eamonn O’Hara for 20 minutes of commitment from James Killcullen Kevin Walsh made a huge mistake. On Sunday he compounded that mistake further by sitting James Killcullen on the bench until it was too late. The manager had lost faith in his convictions. 

The players can’t be held blameless for the embarrassment of the London defeat. They represent the paucity of talent in the county in general but you must wonder about all those called into the squad for the FBD Connacht league. When the pre-league cull was over not too many new faces remained and the National League squad had a grimly predictable quality about it. With only two recognized scorers taking the field on Sunday the worst case scenario emerged: a game where both Adrian Marren and Mark Brehony struggled to score. Could Walsh really have countenanced the exclusion of Stephen Coen in the face of so few alternatives up front?

The biggest error in this sorry mess was the Sligo county board waiting for Kevin Walsh to make a decision last autumn about his return. Walsh allegedly interviewed for the vacant Roscommon managers job. Kevin Wash wasn’t waiting around for Sligo at that time. Now in the wake of the worst result in our football history Sligo should not wait for him.