Connor outlines three year strategy for progress

From the Sligo Champion:

SLIGO Rovers manager, Sean Connor, has revealed a three-year strategy aimed at returning the club to the forefront of the eircom league.

"Next year I am looking to stabilise and then see if we can push on from there. If we get our financial structure and our support right, there is no reason why this football club can't be as successful as Cork City or Derry City. That is my genuine belief," Connor said as he addressed members at the A.G.M. of the Sligo Football and Sports Development Society Ltd.

He explained that at present there were sixteen players training at the Showgrounds, with the plan to have fourteen full-time players, with two on loan and the numbers supplemented by four to five part-time players.

"Hopefully, in terms of fitness and organisation, we will be able to compete with the best," said the manager.

"We have to be realistic and have to acknowledge we are competing against the likes of Derry, Cork, Drogheda and Shelbourne, whose budgets are all in excess of €20,000 a week.

"I think we are initially competing in a 'second tier' and I am very confident that with the team I am putting together and with the support of everyone, we can be very, very competitive," he maintained.

Referring to the re-organisation of the league and the assertion that there would be no relegation next year, Connor said this would not effect his thinking in any way.

"Relegation or not, I didn't want to finish in the bottom two and I want my team to be as high up the table as we can, because that is what will bring people to the Showgrounds," the manager said.

"It was fantastic to play in front of the crowds we did last year and I want to give people something to come out and watch and enjoy next season," Connor added.

He appealed to people to come to the ground and increase the gates.

"Talk is cheap, but we need our supporters in the Showgrounds. As I have said, it is all about team work and working together we can progress, I have no doubt about that," he added.

At the outset, Connor said it gave him great pleasure to stand before the A.G.M. as a Premier Division manager.

He recalled 2004 and making some promises at that time.

"I looked around at some of the faces and I don't think some people believed me then. I am very pleased that I delivered on those promises," he added.

The Rovers boss told members that the success Rovers enjoyed last year was all about team work and team effort, from the committee down to the playing staff.

He personally thanked the club Chairman, Michael Toolan; Treasurer, Fergal Keaveney; Secretary, Mary McGowan and Ray Gallagher-because these were the four people that he had dealt with on a weekly and daily basis.

The manager also thanked the Management Committee for their efforts. He said he felt he had spent the money made available to him well and had put out a good team and one which had delivered the First Division championship.

"Team work is going to be a key asset to where we are going to go," he said.

Commenting on the role of local businesses and large developers coming into Sligo, Connor stated that he believed a successful Premier Division club could only benefit the commercial entities within the town and the people of the area.

"I made an appeal for the business community to come in behind us recently and I am glad to say it has been supported. We have had some contacts and we will follow them up," he added.

The manager stressed the need for people who would go out and genuinely work on behalf of the club.

"Everybody-and I stress this-everybody their part to play in the success we are going to have in the next couple of years, be it buying or selling a lotto ticket, or bringing in five hundred or five thousand euros. It all helps.

"The new season we are going into is going to be difficult and I am going to need your support, probably more so than last year when we were winning. We are going to lose games this year and then is when the real supporters will actually stand up and be counted," the manager told members.