Kick-off in the Showgrounds is on Saturday at 7.45pm. The match will be shown on LOITV.

We extended our lead at the top of the league table last week with a narrow, but deserved, 1-0 win over Waterford. Having lost so disappointingly to Bohs four days earlier, was it a satisfactory response from the group?

“One thing about this group is they always respond, they’re always ready for the next game, regardless of the result of the previous game. They move on quickly and we’re very good as a group in reviewing and moving on quickly. You have to do that and these players showed that against Waterford. I thought they were excellent in every department. We knew it was going to be a tough game, it proved to be the case. But we got the deserved goal and the three points.”

You’d mentioned before the Waterford game how your recent team selections were giving you sleepless nights with almost everyone available. Rory Gaffney didn’t feature against Bohs but scores that vital winner off the bench against Waterford. Is Rory the model professional in battling back to get fit this season, helping young Michael Noonan with his game, and taking an omission on the chin before still turning up to win a game?

“I totally respect and understand that Rory would be really annoyed and disappointed with me at times this year. If he wasn’t like that, I’d be worried to be honest. I know Rory a long time, I played with him, I know the type of man he is. So, I totally understand that, but I also understand that Rory is the ultimate professional and when called upon, he’s ready. He’s been excellent this year. After the game, I thought he probably should’ve started the Waterford game. It’s genuinely the worst part of this job for me because this group are a brilliant group of men. It’s really hard leaving anyone out because they don’t deserve it, that is the worst part. Rory came on, he’s ready when called upon and scores the vital goal, but his all round game was where it’s been all year, at a really high level. If there’s a way to criticise or answer your manager, that’s the way to do it, to come on and perform like that and Rory does that. It sums him up and the career he’s had and the level he’s still playing at. You don’t do that just on ability, that comes from having a really elite mentality to the game and the profession and Rory has that.”

A clean sheet was another addition to the three points, given the close nature of the Waterford game, how important was Ed McGinty’s early save?“

Ed has been brilliant. I think early on in the season, you could he see him getting used to the things we were asking of him. As the season has gone on, Ed has got more comfortable with that and has improved and there’s still more to come from him. His save in the first half was really really important. When we were looking at goalkeepers last year, Ed was important as we felt he had similar characteristics to Alan Mannus, in that he could be quiet for long periods and then make big saves. We don’t give up many opportunities but when we do, and you will in any game, you’re hoping your keeper will make big saves and Ed makes big saves. That first half save was a really important and difficult save, it was down at his feet, but that save gave us the platform. If Waterford score that, they had something to hold onto, so it was a really important save.”

We are away to Sligo Rovers tomorrow. It will be our last league game for a few weeks with the FAI Cup game at home to Wexford, a friendly against Glenavon and European football coming up. Is it a good time to have the league out of our minds after such a hectic season to date?

“It’s a hard one, but we know how busy the schedule gets. It’s obviously nice not having a game between the European games, but where we are in the league, you just want the games to come, you want to play them. So, it is a difficult one. But we’re well used to this, we’ve been down this road a number of times the past few years. We’re now focussed on Sligo tomorrow, the friendly next week, then Wexford, and then Europe. So, it’s where you want to be, fighting on all fronts in all competitions and right now we’re doing that. We’ll remain focussed and enjoy it.”

Sligo, despite their position are a good team with a fine young coach in John Russell. We lost 2-1 at The Showgrounds earlier this season, so we can expect another big test tomorrow.

“It’s one of three grounds where we’ve lost this year. We know what we’re going into, it’s a difficult game and there’s no getting away from that. Sligo have really good players, we’re under no illusions. We were below our levels there earlier on in the year and we lost the game, so we need to make sure we’re at our levels tomorrow night. If we do that, everything else will look after itself.”

There are many young talents in our league right now, none more so than Sligo’s Owen Elding who is making a habit of scoring spectacular long-range goals. He’s a player we can’t give the slightest opportunity to.

“Owen is a good player. As you said, there are many good young players in our league, Owen is 19 and is a good young player. He has scored some really good goals but Sligo have others too so it’s important that we’re ready and respect what Sligo bring to the table.”

What’s our injury news ahead of the game?

“Adam Matthews will begin running again next week so I’d imagine he should be back for the Wexford game in two weeks time. Aaron Greene is out with an ankle injury so again I hope he’ll be ready for the Wexford game. Trevor Clarke hurt his calf against Cork a few weeks ago so he’s out and again, I’d imagine again he might be back by the Wexford game. Other than those, everyone is ok.”