Sligo captain Roddan aims to avoid another slow start in 2017

Sligo Rovers enjoyed a solid first season under the stewardship of Dave Robertson in 2016 and Bit o’ Red captain Craig Roddan believes that they are capable of building on last year’s fifth place finish.

“I think the lads are all gelling well together and I think that we’re set for a strong start to the season,” Mersey native Roddan told extratime.ie.

“Hopefully things will go our way. It’s a tough start [with Limerick and Dundalk up first] but we have got to play them all at some time so it doesn’t really matter the order.

“Our aim is just to get off to a good start, take one game at a time and hopefully finish higher than last year with more points on the board.”

Sligo got off to a difficult start 12 months ago, winning none of their opening eight league encounters.

Roddan, though, is confident of avoiding a slow start to this term and highlights the club’s new additions as being key to how they will fare, although the loss of Achille Campion to Cork City is a notable absence.

“We have one or two new additions to the team so we’re in good stead for the start of the season.

“Ach was good for us but we still have plenty of good lads up there. We brought in two strikers in Matty Stevens and Jonah [Ayunga].

“We got them two lads in on loan and they look very good prospects for us, and we have also got Raffaele Cretaro, who in my eyes is one of the best strikers in the league.”