KYLE CALLAN-MCFADDEN has grown a lot over the past 18 months.
When the Donegal native arrived at Sligo Rovers in December 2016, he clearly possessed bags of potential but his experience in senior football was minimal.
An FA Youth Cup winner with Norwich City, former Ireland U21 international McFadden had made one senior appearances for the Canaries before taking a punt by moving Stateside to join Orlando City’s reserve team.
While his stint in the US was a positive one, the centre-half agreed to return home and sign for the Bit O’Red. Having cemented his place at the heart of their defence in his debut season, he was voted Player of the Year by the club’s fans and manager Gerard Lyttle took the decision to hand him the skipper’s armband ahead of the current campaign.
“When Gerard came in, he knew my personality as a leader,” Callan-McFadden tells The42 this week. “He told me at the end of last season that he was going to make me captain. I was quite shocked because I was only 22 at the time.
“This is my second season in proper first-team football, whereas in America I was playing with an MLS ‘B’ team. To be named captain of such a big club at 22 was an honour and I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
“If I felt lads needed lifting or the boys need a second voice to the gaffer, I’d have a couple of words,” he adds. “But I like to do my talking on the pitch, setting the tone with a hard challenge, a header or a pass. That’s the sort of captain I am.”
Having finished just out of the drop zone in 2017, Sligo find themselves involved in another relegation scrap this time around as four wins from a possible 18 has left them level on 16 points with Limerick and eight ahead of bottom-placed Bray Wanderers.
And while Lyttle’s side have only managed 14 goals so far, they’ve conceded 26.
It’s been up and down,” explains Callan-McFadden. “The performances have been there, it’s just we can’t seem to get that goal or keep them out at the other end. We’re lacking that cutting edge and that ruthlessness at both ends, but we’ve been working a lot in training on both sides of that. The games are coming thick and fast and we’re trying to put it right.
“You’ve seen with the last five or six games that things are falling into place. The transfer window is coming up and it’s maybe an opportunity for a few fresh faces to come in and lift the dressing room.”
Numerous players and managers have complained about the arduous nature of this season’s fixture list due to the rescheduling to a 10-team Premier Division, and Callan-McFadden agrees that it has been testing.
“I think most players around the league would find it difficult,” he says. “There was a week gone by there where we played Saturday, Tuesday and Friday. There’s no time to rest or recover but there’s nothing that we can do and you take each game as it comes.
“Hopefully next season the league will look into it and stretch it out a bit further for another month or so. Maybe the teams with the smaller squads or without the full-time facilities might find it tougher, but you’ve just got to get on with it.”
Only this week, Lyttle has come out and insisted that his job is safe despite their current league position, and although he is no doubt under some pressure, his captain states the squad have full faith in his abilities.
“He came in halfway through the season last year and the job he did was tremendous,” the 23-year-old says. “We set our targets for this year and we haven’t reached them at the minute, but I think the club would be wise to stay with the gaffer. All the players love him and we’ll fight for him because he has been great for every one of us since he has come in.
It’s not the time to be panicking yet and there’s still a long way to go and we’re all sticking by him.”
The main objective now is to maintain their top-flight status and Friday night presents an enormous opportunity for Sligo to get points on the board as they welcome Limerick to the Showgrounds. The Bit O’Red were 2-1 winners when the sides met at Markets Field last month, and they held Shamrock Rovers to a 0-0 draw last weekend.
The Blues, meanwhile, claimed a morale-boosting 6-3 win over Waterford last week before going down 2-0 to the champions on Monday.
“Everyone is going to have the heads on and we know it’s a big game,” says the Sligo captain. “We can take positives away from the Shamrock Rovers game, as we had been conceding a lot but we kept a clean sheet against Shams, who have good firepower up top with Graham Burke flying at the minute. He’s been called up to the Irish team but we managed to keep the likes of him quiet.
“We’re confident going into the Limerick game and we’re looking to push away from the teams below us. We beat them away from home so we know what to do to win the match.”
Outside football, Kyle feels at home in Sligo with his wife and their son Albie.
“I’m loving it, and that’s a big part of it as you’re going to do well on the pitch if you’re enjoying it off the pitch. The missus is happy here, the young fella is 10 months so he doesn’t really have a clue at the minute! As they say, happy wife, happy life, and we’re settled here for the last few years.”
That said, his original two-year deal is up at the end of this season, and he can’t be sure what the future holds.
“Everyone wants to play at the highest level that they can and aims to get back to a good level in England — League One, Championship or the Premier League,” Callan-McFadden adds.
“But I’m fully-focused on Sligo Rovers at the minute and I can’t see myself leaving anytime soon. Obviously, that’s up to the gaffer and the board but I’m thoroughly enjoying myself here.”
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