By Alan Finn

As long as football has been a professional sport, generation after generation of young hopefuls have often been met with a devastating dilemma of considering their future when it becomes apparant they won’t play first team football.

A 20-year-old Chris Rutherford was forced to think about life after football when Cardiff City opted to let him go after five years with the club, but ultimately he was not prepared to give up on his dream of playing the sport he loved.

While Cardiff decided not to offer the defender a route to first team football, opportunity beckoned with a former teammate who opened a door for both him and another player looking to pick their careers back up after being let go by the Welsh club.

“A lad called John McClelland was released around the same time as me, he went playing for Walsall and ended up going to Leeds and Rangers and got over 50 caps for Northern Ireland and it was that connection that helped because he knew scouts in Belfast who were looking for ex-Cardiff players who might fancy a move to Ireland and from there myself and Graham Fox ended up signing for Sligo Rovers.”

Billy Sinclair was the manager who took Rutherford and Fox under his wing. Despite spending much of the last five years as a forward, Sinclair recognised Chris’s potential as a defender. The rest, as they say, is history.

“Billy played with Chelsea and Linfield and you knew he was a man who knew what he was talking about. He was the type you knew was thinking about football 24/7.

“I played up front and on the wing for Cardiff and it was only in my last couple of months there I switched to centre-back, so coming here I still had plenty to learn about playing there and after every training session Billy would keep me behind for extra heading practice, teaching me how to tackle, all the skills I needed, he really went out of his way to make me the player I was.”

For the full interview with Chris, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now!

Alternatively, you can purchase an online edition here

By John Bromley

The winner of the top prize of €15,000 in Sligo Credit Union’s first big draw of the year is convinced that her late father “sent” her the prize.

And for the winner Georgina Hudson the win could not have come at a better time as she is getting married in August.

It is because of the circumstances of her win that Georgina feels that her father Willie, who passed away 13 years ago, had a hand in things.

Georgina told the Sligo Weekender: “I had only applied to the Credit Union on the Tuesday for a wedding loan and the most they will give you for that is €15,000. Then on the Friday evening I won €15,000 in the draw.

“I’m fully convinced my father sent it to me. I know if he was here he would have given it to me”, she said.

It is also the first time that she has won any draw.

Georgina’s father Willie was a very well-known figure in soccer in Sligo, both through Sligo Rovers and Junior Soccer.

Georgina, who is from Garavogue in Sligo town, will be marrying her finance Dean Deering from Doorly Park in her local St Anne’s Church, with the reception in the Sligo Park Hotel.

She said the €15,000 will come in very useful for the wedding.

“It will put a little dent in it anyway”, she said.

Georgina has been a long-time saver with the Credit Union. “I started saving when I was 15 and I’m now 42.”

Apart from Georgina there were 31 other happy winners of cash prizes, which ranged from the €15,000 down to €250.

A spokesperson for the Credit Union said they would like to offer Georgina and Dean their best wishes for their wedding in August.

September 2017 seems like a very distant memory for the Mitchell family, and in particular sisters Mairead and Aoibheann. That was the beginning of a mammoth fundraising effort to raise the necessary capital – €242,500 – to build a facility where they could live independently.

Both women, from Coolera in Sligo, suffer from a rare generic disease known as Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP).

Mairead and Aoibheann began to show symptoms in their late teens. At first they noticed themselves dragging their legs and then they became more prone to falls.

In September of this year, the Mitchell family launched a campaign to raise funds to build two purpose built housing units on a site adjacent to the family home.

The Sligo Weekender first reported on the story in September and now the Mitchell family are able to reap the rewards of a huge and innovative fundraising effort.

“At the time [in September] we were so vulnerable. Everything was alien to us and within a a few weeks of going public [the fundraising campaign] took legs,”
Kathleen Mitchell, Aoibheann and Mairead’s mother told the Sligo Weekender.

Kathleen said that the family “cannot believe the support we got from Coolera, Sligo and the whole country.”

Back in September, she concedes that the family felt they had a “huge mountain to climb” to raise the funds needed but through different events organised here in Sligo and in Kathleen’s home of Westport, the project has gotten over the line.

“We are in a good place now. There was so much good will for us and people were so generous and kind,” Kathleen said.

The two purpose build units have, according to Kathleen been “future proofed” for Mairead and Aoibheann’s needs.

“It is probably as good an example of disabled housing to be found in Ireland,” she said.

Kathleen paid tribute to Ciaran Hayes, CEO of Sligo County Council, for his help as well as Galway Independent TD Noel Grealish who were both present for the opening
of the Mitchell Sister’s new homes at the weekend. She also thanked Kilcawley Construction and occupational therapist Sinead Duffy.

“It goes without saying that we want to thank the communities of Sligo, Westport and beyond. Without their help, we would not be where we are now,” she added.

By Alan Finn

When you think of Scotland and Sligo Rovers, there isn’t a generation of supporters who couldn’t name a couple of players from the land of lochs and legends – beginning with the arrival of Bob Preston in 1934, the earliest Rovers manager on record who holds the distinction of also being the first of many player-coaches at the club.

For those of a certain vintage, there was goal-scoring dynamo Johnny Armstrong whose club record of 138 goals remains intact and looks less and less likely to be matched as time goes on.

Fast forward to the 1970s and you have sensational Celtic loanee Pat McCluskey lighting up The Showgrounds and Mick Leonard forming part of a formidable front three that landed the 1977 League of Ireland title.

In 1994 Willie McStay etched his name in Rovers folklore forever as the player-manager who guided the club to an historic treble. Mark Hutchison would become a regular in the red and white during the mid to late 90s and again in the new century, while in 2010, veteran centre-back Jim Lauchlan brought his vast experience to help solidify a team who would win a League Cup and FAI Cup double.

Even in today’s squad, the ranks boast a quartet of Rhys McCabe, Lewis Morrison, Alistair Roy and Calum Waters.

In amongst this myriad of great Scots is a man who dazzled supporters in the early 90s, topping the goalscoring charts in two of his three seasons at The Showgrounds.

Eddie Annand joined The Bit O’Red as a 19-year-old loanee from Partick Thistle in 1992.

While many will remember Annand for his contributions in the 1993-94 season, it is easy to forget that the club started that First Division campaign in abysmal fashion.

It would have been easy for heads to drop, but Eddie knew he and his teammates were still destined to have a good season. For him the belief that was instilled in them to ultimately win the title could not have been achieved without the management style of Willie McStay.

“We didn’t get off to a great start as I recall. I don’t think we won any of our first six games, but the belief was still there, it was all in the way he [McStay] approached training, approached the players but it was his attitude as well, he was still playing with the club that season but he was our manager first and foremost and I think the boys really respected that. He had a great knowledge of teams before we played them too, he knew how they were going to set up, he knew where the danger was going to come from and he knew how to play to our strengths. He was a great manager and a great guy to play under and it speaks volumes of the impact he had at the club in just a couple of years.”

For the full interview with Eddie, see this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper – in shops now!

Alternatively, you can purchase an online edition here