Millien and Rogers happy with friendly win

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After another impressive pre-season showing on Saturday evening, Extratime.ie caught up with two of the Bit O'Red's newest faces, goalkeeper Gary Rogers and goalscoring trialist Pascal Millien.

 
It's not often a player becomes a fan favourite before he has even signed, but it appears Pascal Millien has already won over the Sligo Rovers faithful after his second half display in their victory over Athlone Town at the weekend.

Speaking after the 3-0 victory Pascal and began by talking about his delight with his performance: "First of all I'm very thankful, I want to thank god and I want to thank my team-mates who keep me going and give me confidence going into this game. I also want to thank all the fans, it's made me very happy."

After his plans of arriving in Ireland earlier this month were disrupted due to problems with his Visa, he now feels he is settling into his new surroundings very well: "Yeah everything's good, you know, I'm very happy with everything Iv'e seen so far, so I just got to keep it going and hopefully things work out here."

After playing in hailstone conditions that he never experienced before while on the pitch, he discussed how the dramatic change in climate for him will have no effect on him: "I came over from 70 to 75 degrees in Florida, but this is what it is, this is what soccer is all about, you just got to get used to it and then move forward."

Finally, he assured us that if he scores more goals, we can expect to see more of his sensational celebrations: "This is something Iv'e been doing since I was young,  so I just to got to keep it going and hopefully I sign here so yes you'll see more of that here if I get the chance and score more goals here."
 
The Bit O' Red's new goalkeeper Gary Rogers was also happy with the team's performance: "It's great to keep building a bit of momentum, we've won all our pre-season games so far and next week is our last game before Shelbourne so hopefully we'll be able to build on it."

With Paul Cook's recent departure from the club, Gary feels it has had little bit of effect the squad but they aim to just get on with their pre-season preparations as normal: "It is a little bit unsettling, like any player at the club they've signed for him and you expect him to be here at the start of the season but it hasn't worked out. It doesn't matter though, we are all professionals so it doesn't matter whose going to be the manager. I'll give 100% and I'm sure all the rest of the lads will be the very same."
 
With Richard Brush also among the squad at The Showgrounds this season, the Meath native is aware of the challenge he faces to keep a place in the starting eleven: "You can't take anything for granted, if I'm lucky enough to have the number one shirt against Shelbourne I'll be doing my upmost to keep it, but there's no harm in having good competition like I've been the same with the likes of Dan Connor, Chris Bennion and Brendan Clarke so if you have a good keeper beside you It'll help you, you'll work harder and it will help you play better in the games."
 
Sligo Rovers next and final friendly is away to Longford Town on Saturday afternoon which kicks off at 2pm.

    About Alan Finn

    Alan Finn is a Sligo based reporter who joined the Extratime crew in 2012. If there is a match on in The Showgrounds, it is likely you will find him there. View Full Profile