Sligo Rovers and Derry City played out an entertaining 1-1 draw in the Showgrounds on Saturday night as the Bitored played their last game under interim coach Declan McIntyre. Newly appointed manager Gerard Lyttle watched on from the stands.
Sligo took the lead through that man Kieran Sadlier on 30 minutes, but just six minutes later Conor McDermott scored his first senior goal for the Candysrtipes.
The result moves Derry into fifth place in the table just a point behind Limerick, while Sligo move to tenth, one point from safety.
Assistant manager Brian Dorrian told us afterwards, “The game against Derry was a very evenly contested game. They started brightly, it took us time to settle down but when we did we started to play a bit.”
“Then Kieran scores a great goal, he has been doing excellent for us this season, and especially in last few weeks.”
“I thought in the second half we created numerous chances that we didn’t take, Jonah Ayunga has had a header that went so close, but that’s football. It’s a good point but a lot of work to be done going forward in the rest of the season.”
“Tomorrow starts a new chapter with the new gaffer coming in, he will have his own plans to implement with the team going forward which is now important for us all to get behind.”
Goalkeeper Michael Schlingermann said, “I suppose the initial reaction was that of disappointment because going into the game we knew a win would take us up a few places in the league table, and secondly with the new manager in the stands a good first impression for him too.”
“In the end we didnt lose the game but still think the three points were there for the taking.”
“We started really well,taking the lead in the first half but they got a fortunate equaliser in that a shot took a massive deflection off Kyle McFadden who threw his body on the line to make a block.”
“The second half was really open and both sides played attractively to create lots of chances so i suppose both sides would feel they didn’t deserve to lose the game.”
Photo Credit: Sligo Rovers FC