John Russell acknowledges 'soul-searching' after Sligo Rovers boost survival hopes

Sligo Rovers manager John Russell admitted that there had been plenty of "soul-searching" at the club before they dug out a 1-0 win over ten-man Derry City on Friday night to boost their hopes of avoiding the relegation play-off spot.

With second from bottom Cork City breathing down their neck as the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division enters the final furlong, the Bit o' Red had been sitting precariously just ahead amid poor form and a struggle to score goals.

But last week's victory over bottom side UCD followed by the home win over Derry, and coupled with Cork City's defeat at Shelbourne, has moved Sligo level with Drogheda United.

More importantly, they now have a nine-point advantage over the relegation play-off spot, albeit having played a game more than Cork.

"There's been a lot of soul-searching. It's been a tough season for me personally," manager Russell said as he reflected on his side's victory over title-chasing Derry.

"I work extremely hard and normally, when you put in the work and the effort that I do and the staff do, in any other professional industry, you get rewarded.

"But in football, things can go against you like penalty decisions and handballs or a slip from a player.

"We've lost too many games this year, we've had sob stories in terms of having ten players out at one stage and no centre-back, so we've had to deal with a lot of blows.

"But I'm thankful that we were able to reset after (losing 3-0 at) Cork. We were all hurting and it was a tough moment coming back on that bus a couple of weeks ago.

"But we trained really well. I brought the players away for two days and we had a training camp.

"We reset, we knew what we needed to do for the last seven games and we've had a good start with two wins. We've