Friday night’s match kicks off at 7.45pm and is available to stream on LOITV. All tickets for away fans have been SOLD OUT

To concede the equaliser to Sligo right at the end must have been frustrating for the team but you’ve said that you felt a draw was probably a fair result?

It was frustrating as usually, we can see those games out, even with 10 men. When we watched it back though a draw was a fair result as both sides had chances, we’ll take the point and move on.

And how great a strike was it from Graham to open his account in the first half?

It was a fantastic strike,  that’s Graham’s ability and I’m delighted that Graham is off and running early. Trevor did very well to win the ball back, run in behind and create the space. Once Graham starts scoring he can go on a run.

When it was 11 v 11, Alan Mannus made important saves but how do you think we were doing in the game?

We were doing OK. We weren’t anywhere near our best but considering it was the first night and the pitch/ I thought we were just OK in all aspects, we gave up more chances than we should have, and Alan made good saves, he was called on more than we’d like. But it was the first game, and we’ll improve as the weeks go on.

You’ve obviously watched the Pico Lopes red card back, and the Liam Burt incident that was missed by the officials. What is your view of them now?

I didn’t see Pico’s at the time but watched it back immediately after that game. It was an embarrassing decision and if that’s the road we’re going down it’s becoming a joke. The players tell me that the referee had his hand on the yellow card initially, but gets caught up in the emotion of it and gives the red. And how the linesman doesn’t see the Liam Burt one, he was on that side. It’s quite clear that Liam is running away and is caught with an elbow.

We had to cope with a lot of pressure from Sligo in the latter stages and it looked like Rovers might hold out until that corner, and unfortunately the clearance results in their shot from outside the box…

We are disappointed because we know that it is one of our defending set play principles that we didn’t stick to and has come back to hurt it, just a minute from seeing out the game.

I thought we defended really well up to that point. It was a great touch and finish from outside the box.

Drogheda began with a 0-0 draw with Shelbourne. From watching them, who are their danger men we should be wary of?

We watched them on Friday. They have plenty of attacking threats. It’s always a difficult game in Drogheda and we know that Friday will be the same. I liked parts of what I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks and we’ll keep building on that.

Drogheda have never made it easy for us out on this tight pitch but are there positive elements of last Saturday to bring into Friday?

Yes, positive aspects from the game against Derry as well as Friday. We are still a bit off our normal standards, but that’s expected at the start of the season. We can hopefully go another level or two on Friday and get the win.

Ronan Finn, Sean Gannon, Sean Hoare and Sean Kavanagh haven’t been involved yet. Are they close to coming back?

Yes, they’ve all been out for a while. We will try to push the three Seans this week, if not, I’d imagine they will be next week. Ronan picked up a knock on our training camp and is still a few weeks. There aren’t any other new injuries.