Boss admits frustration just like fans

Oran Kearney met with a number of supporters last week to discuss the team's recent form. Photo by Andrew Paton/Presseye.com

The Ballymoney man has been in the game long enough to know there will be plenty of ups and downs throughout a season. The Bannsiders are currently something of a low compared to recent season, but even at that they are still within touching distance of second place as the rest of the league also struggles to find any sort of consistency.

Some fans are edgy though as they long for to see the stripes put a series of wins under their belt.

Kearney is the first to agree with them as he too is frustrated that his charges have been unable to see a number of games out this term despite being in winning positions.

Last Tuesday night Kearney met with fans to discuss the lacklustre start to the campaign.

“I have met with the fans before, and sometimes we do a wee Q&A session on Twitter, just to engage with the supporters,” Kearney said.

“I met with a few of them on Tuesday night and we talked over how things have gone so far.

“I feel it is important to engage with the people who pay money to watch the team play, and it allows them to ask me questions.

“You have to do it whether you are winning or losing. You can’t take all the plaudits, and then suddenly run away from the criticism.

“The fact is that the fans are frustrated, and I can appreciate that. But there is no-one more frustrated than the players and me.

“It has been a difficult opening to the season, but we have to remain optimistic that we will things around.

“The fact is we are sitting ninth, but we are only six points off second.”

“We know if we can go on a wee run, then that will lift the players. As a player, winning breeds confidence so that is what we have to do.

“I can look back at our season and pick out games where we should have collected more points.

“But I am happy with the squad I have, and I am happy with where we are going. But it has been frustrating, and we should be doing better. This time last year we had 24 points, so we are 10 points off that this season.

“Linfield and Crusaders are the only teams to be consistently picking up points. The other 10 teams are scrapping it out.”