Even though he's just thirteen off the club record for total appearances, Sligo Rovers' Raffaele Cretaro says wins not milestones are at the forefront of his mind as the Bit O'Red continue in their quest to climb the Premier Division table. The vet
Even though he's just thirteen off the club record for total appearances, Sligo Rovers' Raffaele Cretaro says wins not milestones are at the forefront of his mind as the Bit O'Red continue in their quest to climb the Premier Division table. The veteran played in 84 minutes of Rovers' 2-1 win over Bray Wanderers on Monday night, his 418th for the club and 467th in the League of Ireland. Sligo legend and record holder Tony Fagan was 37 when his time at the Showgrounds was brought an end. Cretaro, currently one year younger, still looks good to equal and go on and break that record in his 19th season of professional football. Raff is also now the 18th most capped player in the league's history. As proud as he is to take his place on that list, the Tubbercurry man says there are more important issues on his agenda than achieving personal records. "I'm not too far off 'Fago' now but to be honest records are not something I think about", he states. "I go into games thinking about winning them and it's not about reaching milestones. It's just about winning games for me. A lot of these things I don't know about until I'm tagged on Twitter or Facebook or whatever it might be. "If you'd said to me at the start of the season that I'd be playing three games in a just over a week I wouldn't have been too sure. But Ger (Lyttle) has given me the chance to come in and give the lads a dig out. I've done that and now I've maybe given him a headache in terms of staying in the team. He rang me before the Bray game and I told him I was feeling good so it's great that he had the confidence in me to put me in. "Am I surprised I'm still playing? Maybe a little bit but the desire is still there to do well. Not just for myself but to help the lads in the dressing room. If Ger says he's leaving me out of a game then I'll respect that." Rovers have the chance to put five points between themselves and Bohemians this Saturday evening when Cretaro's former club visit Sligo. He says confidence is beginning to flow in the dressing room having take five points from the last possible nine. "We'll be looking to get a result in that one because if other results go for you then that could leave some daylight between us and the bottom few", he continues. "They'll be tough but we'll have a few lads back from injury and suspensions so you'd hope we'd have a full squad to choose from." Looking back at the win over Bray, Cretaro says the result was imperative given where Sligo are right now. "We were probably comfortable for the whole of the first half and a lot of the second. When you're two up, the next goal is always important and they got it but we held out and that's a valuable three points. "We knew what was at stake because if Bray beat us then they were on our tails and if we beat them then we could jump two places, which we did. You can't take anything but positives from that, going into Saturday. Everyone's on the up here and it's great for us." The experienced pro also had words of praise for the squad's younger members. Teenage duo John Mahon and Jack Keaney have played key roles for Rovers in recent games. The club's oldest player says he's been extremely impressed with the pair. "I don't think anyone can give them enough praise for the job they've done", Raff says with a smile. "They're like two old heads and haven't looked out of place at all. John's played three games now in a row and he's flying it and same with Jack, that goal will do a lot for him." One trophy Cretaro hasn't picked up during his illustrious career is the EA Sports Cup. Sligo last won the competition in 2010, a landmark which began a golden period for the club. Cretaro was plying his trade at Dalymount Park that year so is still keen to add to his personal haul. Rovers take on Waterford in the quarter final of the competition on Tuesday next. Looking ahead to the Showgrounds tie, Cretaro concluded: "We want to win every game and that's the mentality we've got to have. We were the first team to take anything from the RSC this year so I don't see why we can't do that up here. "It's a quarter final. You win that and you're in the last four. I'm not getting ahead of myself but if you win a trophy like that, it could kick-start something like it did eight years ago."
League of Ireland
