Letterkenny Rovers look to end National League campaign on a high

Letterkenny Rovers finish up their inaugural FAI National League campaign this weekend with a chance to finish in the top three.

Stephen McConnell’s men have seven points in as many games, as they travel to face bottom side TU Dublin who are just a point behind.

Three defeats in a row have seen the Letterkenny men fall a bit back in the standings, with a 3-1 home defeat to Salthill Devon the most recent of those.

And manager McConnell felt they shot themselves in the foot early on as they conceded to two corners in the opening 20 minutes before Shane McNamee got one back, although another strike from Diala Princewill on the hour mark killed the game off.

“There’s no way of putting it nicely, it was three awful goals to concede. On the ball, I felt like we could hurt them, and we did create chances. We probably didn’t work their goalkeeper enough.

“We gave them a two-goal head start with marking like that from corners, which is not what we’re working on. We spoke about it at half-time, but we just have to hold our hands up, and some boys might have to have a look at themselves and accept a bit of responsibility because it’s just poor goals to concede. We can give them all the advice in the world, but once they step across that line, it’s down to them.

“The third goal killed it, but it’s completely against the run of play. We’re dominating them and pinning them back and creating chances, but we just failed to put it in the net.

“I’ve said before, if we make a mistake at this level, we concede, whereas when the other teams make a mistake, we don’t always score.

“Again, we lost our main striker (Ronan McHugh) four games ago, and that’s probably affected us in the scorelines, but we have players capable of playing at this level, and it wasn’t to be today.”

Rovers had began the campaign well as they picked up their seven points from the opening four games, but defeats since have seen them fall out of contention and McConnell feels it has to be better before they head into a full length season in 2027, although it has been a good campaign to find their feet at this new level..

“We were just worrying about what we could affect, and that’s our fourth loss now, which is more than half the games, and that isn’t good enough for a team of this magnitude, especially with the calibre of players we have.

“Out of those games, we possibly could have won two at least, so we’re not a million miles away, and I believe we’ll be ready for it. It’s a learning curve for me, the players, and everyone, and the club, so we will be alright.

“The players have adapted well, and I feel we as coaches also have. We’re not the finished article yet, but it’s good to know where we’re at, and we’ll look ahead to next week and plan for next year.”

And with TU Dublin in their final game, which was due to be played two weeks ago but was called off due to Storm Boelo, there will be hopes they can finish with a win and get their first result on the road.

“Home advantage is massive, and it wasn’t to be for us in our last two at home, but their pitch is a big astro and a new facility and top class. They’ll be ready for us. We had our analysis done last week on them, but it was called off, so we’ll look forward to it this weekend.

Elsewhere, Bonagee United finish off with a trip to Lucan United, who can top Group 1 with a win, while Bonagee will be hoping for a result to avoid bottom. Cockhill Celtic finish up at home to Mervue United and will be searching for their first win of the campaign in the Charlie O’Donnell Sports Grounds.