Boss shares Inver fans' frustration

“I heard a supporter behind me at the Ards match on Saturday shouting that our left back was being roasted by Mark Picking. I couldn’t argue with that. But I couldn’t do anything about it either!” explained the Larne manager.

“Saturday’s team contained three 17 year olds, an 18 year old and five 21 year olds plus Ryan Brown and Bertie Fulton. And on the bench I had two right wingers and a centre forward. I just had no option – and, in mitigation of Ryan McLoughlin who is a right back, lots of experienced and top quality left backs have been roasted by Picking.

“I know the supporters are really fed up with how things are going now. But I just appeal to them to bear with us and get behind the boys who are out there doing their best in extremely difficult and trying circumstances. It really is tough for them, especially the young fellas who would normally be brought in one at a time to benefit from the experienced guys around them.

“It’s far from ideal but when you only have a squad of around sixteen first teamers at the most and six or even more of them are out through injury or suspension, it’s really impossible to blood the youngsters as you would like. And it’s simply making unfair demands of them.

“We took the job on and our immediate aim was to reduce the wage bill, which we did – down to about half what it had been.

“But we did sign on for three years and we stated at the outset that it was a three year plan to get the team to where we want to be. I still believe we will meet that objective, but it does require patience and, frustrating as it is for all of us, we must still work to meeting that target.

“On Saturday we lost to an Ards team which is, let’s be honest, a better team than Larne. They also had a team out which included Darren Armour, a proven goalscorer with Glentoran and Distillery; Darren Fitzgerald, ex-Glentoran, Rangers and Ballymena; and Picking.

“Yet we more or less matched them for 45 minutes or close to an hour. But when the first goal went in our heads dropped, as happens when you have a team which lacks experience and the benefit of on-field leadership from players who have been there and done it” explained Millar, who was hoping to bounce back to form against Armagh City on Tuesday night – with Ballymoney coming to Inver Park on Saturday.

“It would be great to treat the home fans to a couple of wins, but we can’t promise anything the way the situation is, although we can assure everybody we are doing our very best in a very taxing position, player-wise. It would be much appreciated, however, if the supporters give us their vocal backing and we will try very hard to repay them with a good performance and a great result on Saturday,” added Millar.