Cretaro confident of taking Cup scalp

Credit:

Sligo Rovers were in no hurry back to the North West on Friday night after the drawn Cup tie against Bohemians at Dalymount Park, perhaps resting up for a while before the trek back after an energy sapping battle.

The Bit O’Red have had to draw on every ounce of their modest resources all season in their attempt to stay in contention with the leading pack. In the stiff evening chill and with summer on its' last legs, there seemed an air about the Sligo contingent that suggested maybe the worst has passed. With the recent burst of form Rafael Cretaro certainly felt there was grounds for optimism.

“Yeah, we'll go into the replay with a lot of confidence. We were missing a lot of lads through injury. Gavin Peers being out, he’s been out for the guts of nine weeks. He’s come back in and a player of Gavin’s calibre is a big loss to any team and he’s back in at centre-half and we’ve stopped leaking maybe as many goals as we had been doing.”

As Bohemians went forward in waves in the second half the Sligo defence was hit with a barrage of opposition fire, shored up manfully by an outstanding Richard Brush between the posts and Peers in front of him.

“The fact that he’s back now [Peers], hopefully we can surge that bit more up the league and results in the league and other places might come as well,” stated Cretaro.

As the season reaches the business end of things with a full round of league games yet to play, the FAI Cup in full swing and the Setanta Sport’s Cup also to contend with, the Tubercurry native knows it’s going to be a busy Autumn.

“The games are coming thick and fast. Over the next three weeks we’ve two games a week and the fact we haven’t a massive squad doesn’t give a lot of lads rest but that's football…we’re going to train hard and hopefully get a lot of results in our favour.”

As his colleagues filed onto the bus home, Cretaro was asked one final question - What’s the chances of a win in the replay on Tuesday night?

“Well Brushy has pulled off one or two saves tonight that have kept us in the tie. It’s a good result to bring back to the Showgrounds and we’d fancy our chances up there. All we can do is try.”

Kick off on Tuesday is 7.45pm