Bank Holiday Monday’s match in the Showgrounds kicks off at 6pm – stream on LOITV

Were you pleased a real desire shown by the team with ten men on Friday to not only win the game but keep a clean sheet in the latter stages?

Yeah, we were delighted with the different attributes shown on Friday. I thought parts of our play was really good and as was our defending. Our shape, character and spirit throughout the game was really good and especially when we went down to ten men. That was the really pleasing part. To be fair to the players, I thought they showed that in Cork the week before too but they were excellent on Friday and you could see that they were determined not to concede a goal.

It was a rare start for Aaron Greene and he repaid your faith with a brace. There’s an element of fortune with the first strike off the keeper but how did you think he took his two goals?

I thought the two goals were really good. The first goal was a brilliant team goal. We’ve worked it from one side to the other and then Ronan with a bit of quality across the box and Aaron is there to put it away. What’s brilliant about the second one, first getting it back and Aaron’s pace getting us in but then the understanding of what the goalkeeper had done in the first half, stopping him one v one. You could see Aaron had recognised that and touched the ball outside, a bigger touch than what he had in the first half to allow him to go and score. It was a really clever bit of play.

With a busy schedule going into the break how important was it to put everything behind us, perform and a get the win to head into Sligo and UCD in a good place?

We spoke after Cork and the aim was obviously to go and make the most of these three games and see can we get nine points on the board. We started that on Friday and we want to follow that up with three points in Sligo.

You probably saw the photo of you kissing young Josh on the head went everywhere in the media, did a very difficult week at least end on a nice note for everyone?

I think it always helps to get three points but it was great to have Josh there, and a massive thank you to everyone for the support they showed Josh on the night. It was brilliant.

Rovers were down a lot of bodies on Friday but you were able to get Sean Gannon and Liam Burt on the pitch who have both had injury spells, and Sean Hoare, Johnny Kenny and Neil Farrugia return from suspension so are things looking better on that front going into Monday?

We have Sean Hoare, Johnny and Neil back. Dylan Watts and Simon Power too. Ronan Finn is suspended but we have a lot of bodies back which is really important coming into these two games and at an important stage of the season.

We drew 1-1 at the Showgrounds with ten men on opening day and Sligo were excellent even though they lost 2-1 in Tallaght. What are their qualities to watch out for?

I think we saw in Tallaght that Sligo are a good side and I’ve no doubt we’ll see the best of them tomorrow night. They have real qualities and we’ve got to be ready for that and respect that. Our levels have to be there where they have been the last two weeks, they can’t be what we were against Sligo in Tallaght because that won’t be enough. To go up there and get the win we know we have to be at our best on Monday.

It’s a ground where we’ve had good results the last few seasons, despite the home fans trying to make it hostile, have the team typically enjoyed the Showgrounds as a venue to play our way?

Yes, we like going there. It’s a big pitch and we like playing on it. It’s a tough place to go but we enjoy going there and tomorrow night will be no different. We’re ready to go and fully focused on trying to get three points.