Sligo Rovers F.C.
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| Sligo Rovers Football Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Sligo Rovers Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Bit O'Red | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Founded | 1928 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Showgrounds, Sligo, County Sligo |
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| Capacity | 5,500 (2,400 seats) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman |  Michael Toolan |
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| Manager | Dessie Cawley & Leo Tierney (Caretaker) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | Eircom Premier Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006 | 5th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sligo Rovers F.C. (Irish: An Cumann Peile Ruagairí Shligigh) is an Irish football club playing in the Football League of Ireland.
The club is a co-op, it is owned by the people of Sligo. Sligo Rovers have played at The Showgrounds since their inception. The Showgrounds is held in trust, which ensures the ground can never be sold and will remain for Sligo Rovers to use.
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[edit] History
Sligo Rovers Football Club was formed on 17 September 1928 as a result of an amalgamation of two junior sides, Sligo Town and Sligo Blues. Their first game was a 9-1 victory against Ballyshannon on 23 September 1928 . The club, elected to the League of Ireland in 1934, hails from Sligo and play their home matches at the Showgrounds. The club colours are red and white stripes with red shorts away colours are all white.
In the years of The Emergency (WW II) the club captured the imagination of the country when it signed the legendary Bill "Dixie" Dean -the former Everton legend and still the all time top scorer in the English First Division.
Rovers finest periods came in 1937 & 1977, when they won the League of Ireland championship, 1983 when they defeated Bohemians FC to win the FAI Cup and 1994, when under manager Willie McStay they won a "treble" of the Irish First Division title, the First Division Shield and the FAI Cup, beating Derry City FC in the final. In 1994 they got through the preliminary round of the European Cup Winners Cup (eventually losing to Club Brugge in the first round proper, 5-2 on aggregate).
Current Northern Ireland national football team manager Lawrie Sanchez managed the club in the 1994-95 season. Steve Cotterill, manager of Burnley F.C. since the season 2005/2006, succeeded Sanchez as manager.
On Saturday November 12th 2005, Sligo Rovers claimed the 2005 First Division Title with a 0-0 draw at home to Athlone Town. Sligo Rovers are playing Premier Division football for the first time in six years in the 2006 Eircom League season. Sligo Rovers reached the FAI Cup semi final in the 2006 season but their manager Sean Connor resigned days after the game despite being contracted until the end of the 2007 season. Despite Connor's lack of interest towards the end of his tenure Sligo Rovers still managed a very credible 5th place finish in their first season back in the Premier Division.
Sligo Rovers are the subject of a popular, semi-autobiographical book, "There's Only One Red Army" by journalist Eamonn Sweeney, published in 1997.
[edit] Supporters
The club has always had loyal following in Sligo Town as well as throughout the North West of the country, where it was an outpost for soccer since its membership of the League of Ireland, this despite not always being successful.
There are four main supporters groups, they are:
- SRFC North Sligo Supporters Club.
- SRFC South Sligo Supporters Club - This is the longest active supporters club of Sligo Rovers F.C. Established on the 15th of January 1995 in the Woodside Inn, Rinbane, Co Sligo. The main focus of South Sligo S.C. is fundraising for the Bit O' Red. The South Sligo S.C. has its own constitution and rules. It is an affiliated supporters club of Sligo Rovers and all monies raise by the club are forwarded too Sligo Rovers F.C. Since the establishment of the Club it has raised over €250,000 for Sligo Rovers F.C. Other activities carried out by the South Sligo S.C. members include stewarding on match days, general repairs to the Showgrounds.
- SRFC Dublin Supporters Club.
- SRFC The Bit O'Red Supporters Trust.
[edit] Current squad
As of January 26, 2007
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[edit] Recent Managerial History
Managerial career began 14 November 2006. Resigned 6th March 2007
Dubliner O’Riordan came to the club after a successful period with Galway United. However, with Rovers he failed to build a side capable of challenging for promotion although he did lay the groundwork for the club’s highly successful Youth policy and he gave a number of locals their Senior debuts in the eircom League. O’Riordan and Sligo Rovers parted ways in the summer of last year – his replacement is Belfast native Sean Connor – and since then his name has been linked with every vacancy in the eircom League. He has found work with Sheffield United under manager Neil Warnock, whom O’Riordan played for when Warnock was in charge of Notts County. O’Riordan is part of the club’s Youth set-up and is currently in China where he is setting up a Youth Academy for United so that they can tap into the ever growing Asian football market.
Cassidy, who had previously managed in Cyprus and Northern Ireland, could do little to reverse the slide in Rovers’ fortunes following the departure of previous manager Jim McInally and they were relegated from the Premier Division. Cassidy went close to getting Rovers back up as they were in contention right up until the final day of the 2000-2001 season when they lost 4-1 against Home Farm Everton. Cassidy and Rovers then parted ways with Cassidy helping out the then Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIllroy, by running the rule over players in the IFA Leagues. The former Northern Ireland international – who played in the World Cup finals in 1982 – was then appointed manager of UniBond League First Division side Workington Reds. Cassidy has been in charge of the Reds for four years and has won promotion to the UniBond Premier Division, which they currently lead and were they to win that they would move into the Conference North. Cassidy also instigated a link between Workington and Scottish Premier Division side Motherwell who now own a 10 per cent share of the club.
McInally came to the Showgrounds at the start of the 1999-2000 season but early results didn’t go his way and he left the club due to personal reasons. McInally went back to Scotland and joined the coaching staff of his former club, Celtic, linking up with another former Rovers manager, Willie McStay, in working with the club’s Youth teams. McInally moved back into management as he was appointed manager of Scottish Second Division side, Greenock Morton. In the 2005/2006 season he led Morton to 2nd place in the Division after which they were subsequently denied promotion by losing to Peterhead in the play-offs. McInally has stated his intention to win the Second Division in the 2006/2007 season.
Reid was one of Jimmy Mullen’s last signings and the former Manchester City player was asked to take charge. In his first season – as player-manager – he took the club on it’s longest ever unbeaten run – which saw them claim the League Cup in February of 1998, beating Shelbourne over two legs in the final (Reid captained the side). His second season didn’t go as well and the club just escaped relegation from the top flight on the final day thanks to a 2-0 win against Derry. Reid was then released from his contract and he went back to England where he went back to college to get his physiotherapy qualifications. He had been working at Burnley but left them to take up a position with Manchester City. He is part of Chief Physiotherapist Jim Webb’s staff and is involved mainly with the club’s reserve side. He also regularly togs with the City ‘Past Masters’ team.
Mullen came to the club after a good spell with Burnley but his reign at the Showgrounds was short-lived and he left the club due to family reasons in July 1997. After leaving the Showgrounds, Mullen found employment with the Welsh FA as he was helping out Neville Southall with the Welsh U-19 side. He then became manager of UniBond Welsh League side Colwyn Bay, but was later sacked. He then had spells with Market Dragon FC and Telford before recently being appointed manager of English Southern League Western Division One side, Bromsgrove Rovers.
Before lawrie Sanchez left in 1995, he recommended that Sligo Rovers appoint Cotterill and that proved to be a wise decision as he led the club to third place in the Premier Division of the National League and his side also reached the League Cup final (Rovers were beaten on penalties by Shelbourne). Cotterill was then offered the position of manager of Cheltenham Town, who he brought from non-League football into the Football League winning the FA Trophy along the way. Cotterill was then appointed manager of Stoke City before leaving Stoke to become Howard Wilkinson’s assistant at Sunderland, who were then in the English FA Premiership. Wilkinson had a disastrous reign at Sunderland and was sacked as was his coaching staff. In June 2004, Cotterill was appointed manager of Football League Championship side Burnley.
Prior to his appointment with Rovers, Sanchez had been famous for scoring the winning goal for Wimbledon in the 1988 English FA Cup Final against Liverpool. Sanchez built on the good work done by McStay with his professionalism rubbing off on everyone at the Showgrounds. He led the club to semi-final of the FAI Cup where they were beaten by Shelbourne. Sanchez then left Rovers to take over as reserve team manager for Wimbledon before becoming manager of Wycombe Wanderers , who had a memorable run to the FA Cup semi-final in 2001 (but they lost to Liverpool in the last four). Sanchez was sacked by Wycombe in 2003, but bounced back to become manager of Northern Ireland for whom he won two caps under Billy Bingham. Sanchez has done sterling work since taking over as he halted their miserable run which saw Northern Ireland set an international record for the longest winless streak without scoring.
After leading Rovers to an historic treble in the 1993-94 season, when they won the First Division, First Division Shield and the FAI Cup, the Scot left Rovers just before the start of the new season after being approached by Celtic, his former club as a player. McStay joined Celtic’s coaching staff and ever since he has been involved with their underage sides. A testament to McStay’s work is the fact that he has survived all the managerial changes at Celtic and is currently part of the club’s Youth Academy staff and has his UEFA Pro Coaching Licence.
Keely guided Sligo to their highest finish in a decade in the Premier Division with a 5th place finish in 1990/91.
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[edit] External links
- The Bit O'Red - the longest running Sligo Rovers Forum on the internet
- Sligo Rovers FC Website
- The Bit O'Red Supporters Trust
- Sligo Rovers forum
- The Showgrounds home of Sligo Rovers FC
