SLIGO ROVERS CRASHED out of the Europa League qualifiers with a 3-1 defeat to Rosenborg (4-3 on aggregate).
The Bit o’Red initially took the lead through Danny North, before the visitors equalised through Helland, and then went ahead courtesy of a Mike Jensen brace.
The home side started the game where they left off in Norway last Thursday, enjoying the majority of the early possession. Early opportunities from Danny North and David Cawley failed to beat Hansen in goal, but showed the Bit o’Red’s intent.
Gary Rogers then did well to stretch and prevent a Helland cross from reaching Morten Gamst Pedersen.
John Coleman’s side made their possession pay off when they took the lead in the 13th minute through the lively North. Seamus Conneely sent Alan Keane forward, his cross missed Cawley but North was on hand to slip it in.
The celebrations from the packed Showgrounds were shortlived, however, as Rosenborg levelled the scores just three minutes later. Rovers’ defence failed to clear a Pedersen cross, and Helland was on hand to beat Gary Rogers to make it 1-1.
There were relieved faces around the Showgrounds soon after, when a short-range effort from Riski beat Rogers in goal, but Kalen Spillane managed to clear it off the line.
Rosenborg went ahead soon after the re-start, when Mike Jensen was sent through by Diskerud and he sent it high into the corner beating Rogers, making it 3-3 on aggregate.
Sligo hearts were then broken on 64 minutes, when a scramble in the box with efforts from Diseruid and Jensen were cleared, before it fell perfectly to Jensen, and he finished with his second of the night making it 3-1.
The Bit o’Red continued to attack, with McMillan coming close in the later stages, but the tie was already effectively over.
SLIGO ROVERS: Rogers, Keane, McMillan, Spillane, Gaynor (Maguire 70), Conneely, Cawley, Russell, O’Conor (Keating 70), Djilali (Ledwith, 84), North.
Subs: Brush, Donelon, Odhiambo, Peers.
ROSENBORG: Hansen, Mickelsen, Strandberg, Reginiussen, Dorsin, Jensen, Selnaes, Riski, Helland (Diseruid, 27), Soderlund (Sorloth, 78), Pedersen.
Subs: Orlund, Svensson, Ronning, Skjelvik, Berntsen.
Strange. All the Irish teams performed so well away from home.
Unfortunate for sligo, this hopefully highlights the need for the fai to invest more money in the league. Imagine how far irish clubs could go in Europe if there was more investment. #delaneyout
What money? The FAI is skint.
Sack Delaney …. That will save a fortune!!
FFS.
Same old story yet again
Winning away at Rosenberg and Split is hardly the same old story, yes the home results were disappointing, but progress is being made.
Getting a decent result in the first leg is one thing..Irish teams are incapable of killing off teams from these kinds of positions
A bummer for Sligo but u have to hand it to Rosenborg.. Beaten at home, a goal behind tonight and came back to score 3. A really good professional performance. Hats off to them . Although u would have thought Sligo would ve had the nous to see the game out.
Disappointing tonight. Rosenberg more clinical. Fitness not an issue, quality was. Difference was North missed his one on one, They did nt. not much between the sides. In truth, if we had players such as NDo, Cretaro, etc they would have made a huge difference. Gap is there but it is not as big as the ‘ experts’ make it out to be. One thing we have to do is learn how to dive and roll like the big teams to win the 50/50 decisions. Rosenberg players were an embarrassment.
Only prob with that is money per round. Eg first round 100,000, second round 120,000, third round 130,000. So reach round three you have 350,000 in the bag. Enter round three you start on 130,000. Nearly covers Delaney’s wage!!!! Compare that to 50,000 for the FAI cup or 100,000 for the league.
Will our coefficient improve based on this years results? Although our clubs went out, the wins against Rosenborg and Hajduk Split plus the draw with Legia were terrific. Will this bag us some points?
Yeah, Dundalk’s win tonight was important as it’ll add another point to Republic of Ireland’s coefficient. 7 wins and 2 draws adds up to a uefa coefficient of 8.000 which, when divided by the number of Irish clubs who competed, leaves us with an average of 2.000 for the campaign. To put this in context, it’s the best result by the league’s representatives since the 08/09 season when the league got 2.500 points. It’s certainly a lot better than the 0.250 that was achieved last season.
I’m not liking this whole it’s the clubs fault and not the FAI.
How can people have faith in a national league that the national association aren’t bothered about.
You look at Belgium, their organisation provides financial incentives for clubs passing quality audits and placing an emphasis on youth.
The FAI are rudderless, there’s no objective for the League. Surely, boosting our coefficient should be a realistic aim. At present, our league ranks at 46/54. If the FAI were good they’d implement a plan to get into the top 30. Yet again, they’ll stand back.
Take a leaf out of the afc Wimbledon book…what local loyal supporters can achieve in a town full of premiership teams on their doorstep..
Shame the game wasn’t covered on TV last night. Smashing game, really good football and neutrals would have had someone to shout for as opposed to a run of the mill LOI game. Really was a cracker and rovers did themselves proud. Fantastic performance
That’s because people are only really interested in the EPL , the league the irish adore
An the award for stating the bleeding obvious goes to……
You are a EPL fan ,so you can’t really whinge about the game not being on tv
I was there dude. Seen Celtic park on TV the other evening. You asked me to look for the giant Irish flag over the main stand. Cameras missed it while the queen of England opened her commonwealth games
It wouldn’t be there as celtic park was rented out for the games, it was flying over Murray field on tuesday
Its a shame that Sligo may not have a chance to build on this next season. Another appearance in Europe after this would have been great. It was a great European effort by them but looking at ahat happened to themselves and Pats this week id have to say that if the Shelbourne team of 10 years ago had been in a similar position as either they would have done what was needed to get through.
I agree dave, think the Sligo side that won the league or perhaps the side the year before that would have gone through. It’s hard to comment on because ya couldn’t fault anybody for effort last night, just lacking in a certain areas last night.
How many games do st.pats need to win 2 get 2 the europa
They cant, went out a round too early