Bannsiders boss Oran Kearney wants kids to stay grounded

The teenager has been banging in the goals for the Bannsiders of late and, although Kearney will be hoping he maintains the trend in Saturday’s Danske Premiership showdown with Glenavon at Mourneview Park, he’s determined to keep his head right.

“Jamie has come through our reserve side,” he said. “He certainly knows where the goal is, but he still has a bit to learn. He knows the things he must improve on.

“But there is no doubt that when he gets a scent of goal, he knows how to finish.

“The last thing that we need is for the younger lads . . . and we have quite a few of them, to get ahead of themselves. That won’t happen because we have too many senior players in the side. They’ll help keep their feet on the ground.

“However, it’s encouraging to see the kids come through, it’s all very much a learning curve form them.”

Kearney is thrilled with is team’s start to the season. The win at Dungannon Swifts, helped them jump to fourth place in the table.

“Our performances have been good,” added the former Linfield midfielder. “We’ll be going to Glenavon with confidence. The attitude in the dressing room is good, as you would expect.

“What is even more significant is the fact that we are still missing quite a few players due to injury.

“Most of them trained this week, so they will give us even more options.We are up for the game.”

f the boys currently holding the shirts keep producing the kind of performances they have been showing, they’ll stay in the side . . . and the lads coming back will be sitting beside me on the bench.”

Neil McCafferty, Darren McCauley and Lyndon Kane are all emerging from the treatment table, but striker Sammy Morrow, brought in from Linfield over the summer, remains a doubt with a knee injury. Rhuaidhri Higgins is still possibly a month away before he is back training.

Glenavon will again be without Gareth McKeown (grion), Dave Elebert (hamstring) and new signing Kyle Buckley, who has a knee injury. Ciaran Martyn is out long term after having surgery on an achilles injury.