Posted online: Jun 12th, 2009

By Darragh Cox
sport@sligopost.com

Sligo Rovers fell to two defeats last week having had just 13 players available for selection.
A long list of injuries and suspensions were compounded by Romuald Boco’s international duty with Benin, as boss Paul Cook had to call on a number of the club’s A team players just to field a team against Bray Wanderers last Tuesday and Derry last Friday.
Boco played 90 minutes in Benin’s impressive 1-0 defeat of Sudan last weekend, and he will remain absent for Rovers until after his country face Mali away on Sunday, June 21.
His absence, added to injuries to Chris Butler, Mauro Almeida, Stephen Parkhouse and Sean Doherty, and suspensions to Conor O’Grady and Alan Keane, meant that Rovers were without seven senior players for Friday’s game against Derry City, while youngster Eoin Torpey was also unavailable.
As a result, Cook handed starts to youngsters Danny Keohane and Jason Noctor, while Christopher Kelly – who was added to the squad for the first time – was Rovers’ only outfield player on the bench.
Nevertheless, the Bit O’ Red players put on a battling display and almost earned a share of the spoils against the title-chasing Candystripes having dominated large parts of the second half.
The shortage of players will not ease for Cook until the mid-season break and the July transfer window at the earliest.
Before that, Rovers have to make the long trip to Turners Cross to face Cork City in the Ford FAI Cup this Friday, and then face league leaders Bohemians at Dalymount Park seven days later.
The club have announced that defender Almeida has been released, having featured in just three games all year because of injury, while it is becoming increasingly unlikely that Butler will sufficiently recover from a serious injury in time to feature for Rovers this season.
Parkhouse and Doherty are also out for the next few weeks as well, while O’Grady has another one-match ban to serve, and Noctor, who was red-carded against Derry, will also have to sit out a couple of games.
Rovers will, at least, have Keane back for this Friday’s game against Cork, which kicks-off at 7.45pm.