For the third season in a row we’ve had a poor youth intake, no Sligo produced regen has played for us yet.
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It’s annoying because with the facilities we have I was expecting at least a few players that were capable of being in the first team.
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With a European run out of the window, I thought it’d be nice if we had a proper go at the FAI Cup… However Bohemian took us to a replay after scoring 2 screamers in a game that we dominated.
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But I wasn’t to worry as I played my second string XI in that game. The strongest Sligo XI played in the replay to ensure that we won comfortably.
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So of course we lost!
With that disappointment behind us, all that was left to play for was the league. With 4 games remaining our only rivals were Shamrock Rovers and they were the team that we faced in our 33
rd league game of the season.
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It was a truly mental game. There were red cards, dramatic comebacks and late penalties… all of which went in our favour.
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A Mikey Drennan penalty in the last minute meant that we had effectively won the league as Shamrock were not going to better our goal difference of +49. All we had to do was get a draw against St Pats in our next game to confirm us as league winners.
Now, a question I need to ask you all is this:
What is the most underwhelming way to win a league title?
Well let me show you.
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By losing 4-0 of course!
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Shamrock Rovers’ result meant that, despite losing by the biggest margin since I’ve been in charge, we won the league for the second time in 3 seasons.
So on that note, it’s all good.
However that drubbing in our last game has got me worried. I’m not sure if a tactic change is needed or if the 4-0 loss was a one off. I don’t like to use downloaded tactics, as I like to create my own, but at the same time I really don’t like spending ages analysing every little detail in a tactic.
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5-2-1-2 has been good for me but as we’ve got the best squad in the league I think any tactic would work.
We’re very leaky at the back, with 2 clean sheets in our last 12, and we always concede from deep crosses no matter what I do.
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Accorsding to the analysis, we have too many long shots yet take too many touches in the opposition area… how are you meant to stop both from happening?!