John Russell urges Sligo to treat Viking game as a 'clean slate'

CLEAN SLATE: Sligo Rovers manager John Russell looking dejected after the first leg. Pic: INPHO/NTB/Carina Johansen

Sligo Rovers' European adventure might be all but expired for this year but manager John Russell is adamant that they'll treat tonight's second leg against Viking Stavanger as a “clean slate” at The Showgrounds (7pm start).

The Norwegians lead 5-1 from last Thursday's first leg at the SR-Bank Arena in Stavanger and, barring a miraculous and unlikely comeback from Sligo, will be heading into the UEFA Europa Conference League play-off round to reach the group stage.

Looking ahead to this week's renewal of rivalries with Viking, who drew 2-2 with Sandefjord in an Eliteserien fixutre last Sunday, Rovers boss John Russell says that the Bit O'Red must remain professional in their approach to a game that has become mission impossible because of last week's result.

“We have to look at the second leg as a clean slate, a new game,” Russell maintained.

“We can't go back and change what happened in Norway – that was a disappointing night, you never want to get beaten by that kind of scoreline.

“We didn't start that game well, went 2-0 down early on and then we lost two of our key players. We'll have hopefully regrouped and got the energy levels back.

He continued: “We have to give a good account of ourselves, it is a sell-out and the fans want us to put in a good performance. We'll try to beat Viking, that's our job.

“We want to compete and win matches. We understand that they are a top outfit – people would have seen that, the way they [Viking] move the ball and their movement ahead of the ball.

“But we've got some good players of our own and this is the platform that they want to be at. Our lads and this club want to be in Europe and we want to get back there next year.

“The town and the community has got the taste for these occasions and we want to experience more nights like we've already had at The Showgrounds.

“We've experienced a lot of ups and downs in recent weeks – we beat Motherwell home and away and then got knocked out of the FAI Cup by Wexford.” 

Russell's plans for this week's fixture and, indeed, the remainder of the season have been rocked by the anterior cruciate ligament injury that will keep centre-back Garry Buckley sidelined for the remainder of 2022 and into part of next year's campaign.

Cork native Buckley, 28, who sustained this serious knee injury in the first-half of the first leg in Norway, had become a crucial part of the Sligo defence since he came to the north-west for the 2020 season, initially as a midfielder.

Sligo this week gave a professional contract to academy player Eanna Clancy, a Leitrim native who has twice featured at centre-back in recent games – his first senior appearances for the club.

To further strength their defensive options, Sligo are looking to sign free agent Cameron Evans – the former Welsh underage international, a product of the Swansea City Academy, had a productive spell with Waterford last season.