{"id":145680,"date":"2025-10-26T04:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/145680\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T04:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:41:08","slug":"sligo-rovers-suffer-blow-in-battle-to-avoid-relegation-play-off-after-draw-with-relegated-cork-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/145680\/","title":{"rendered":"Sligo Rovers suffer blow in battle to avoid relegation play-off after draw with relegated Cork City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It means the Bit O\u2019Red need results to go their way over the next week if they are to avoid finishing in a play-off position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">After Galway and Waterford drew on Friday night, Sligo knew a win was a must in this tie against already relegated Cork City if they are to avoid finishing second bottom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Ger Nash\u2019s side had not won an away game all season, but their FAI Cup final in two weeks\u2019 time will serve as motivation for his players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">With that game in mind, Nash made seven changes to his team, with one eye on that final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">All the pressure was on the hosts, who were patient early on as they tried to find the breakthrough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">City were happy to allow Sligo plenty of the ball early on, with the hosts coming close on a couple of occasions, although Conor Brann in goals wasn\u2019t really troubled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Ryan O\u2019Kane and Jad Hakiki forced saves from the City \u2018keeper, but Sligo were struggling to find that all-important goal despite having plenty of the ball early on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">This game was far from a classic, and perhaps that\u2019s down to what was at stake for the home side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">And City did have chances of their own, particularly through Josh Fitzpatrick when Nash\u2019s side went on the counter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Again though, they couldn\u2019t really trouble Sam Sargeant in the Sligo goals who barely had a save to make in that opening 45 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">But City looked more threatening after the restart, with Sligo again struggling to trouble Brann.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Evan McLaughlin played the ball across to Alex Nolan on the edge of the box, and the former St Patrick\u2019s Athletic fired past Sargeant with a fine finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">That lead lasted a mere five minutes, as Sligo were back level when Owen Elding tucked his penalty past Brann after Hakiki was tripped inside the box.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Rovers were pushing hard to find a winner, knowing what was at stake, but had to settle for a point in the end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Sligo Rovers: S Sargeant, E Agbaje, P McClean, O Denham, S Stewart (C Harkin, 70), J McManus (C Kavanagh, 60), S Quirk, W Fitzgerald, J Hakiki, R O&#8217;Kane, O Elding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Cork City: C Brann, J FIitzpatrick, F Kelleher, F Anderson, C Drinan (C Lutz, 72), M Kiernan, G Bolger (K Kamara, 61), A Nolan (B Lee, 73), S Murray (D Crowley, 37), K Nelson, S Maguire (E McLaughlin, 46).<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Referee: A O&#8217;Dowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It means the Bit O\u2019Red need results to go their way over the next week if they are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[43516,18,19,17,19864,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-145680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-city","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sligo-rovers","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}