Glebe boss hopeful of staying up despite defeat

Glebe suffered a 0-1 defeat at the Riada Stadium on Saturday and missed a great chance to claim three crucial points.

Rangers lie second bottom of the Championship One in 13th spot while wins for Warrenpoint (10th) and Limavady (11th) look to make them safe.

However Glebe still have a realistic chance of catching 12th-placed Larne, who have played a game more and have to play at the Riada on 14 April.

On Saturday Glebe were dealt a blow before kick-off when skipper Ryan Marks failed a late fitness test.

This seemed to unsettle Rangers who also appeared tired after winning one and drawing four of their last five league games.

Reflecting on the match, Cairns said: “Yeah, we were disappointed, we’re much better than that, you see.

“The first half an hour we were well in the game, right up to half time.

“In the second half we improved again, but it just wasn’t enough. We scored in the first half but it was ruled offside. It was just one of those days unfortunately.”

He added: “We’ve been going well, great results and the players on Saturday felt that they could get something out of the game.

“That was the more disappointing thing, they came in and they knew that they let themselves down a little bit, that upset them a bit.

“I was kind of surprised but I think that they were kind of tired because they had a really hard shift the previous Saturday, and lost a bit of speed, its hard to tell.”

Following the pre-match setback and loss of skipper Marks and with Rice already ruled out, Rangers had to reshuffle their pack.

In came Dobbin and Parkhill. The hosts looked a shadow of the team of the last few weeks, and when a tame shot came back off keeper McGraw, Warrenpoint striker had the easy task of tapping it in.

Glebe huffed and puffed, and looked like they had equalised at the end of the first half, with Elder applying the finish, but it was surprisingly ruled offside.

The hosts also had a goal disallowed in the second half for offside.

With five games left it looks like a difficult task to escape relegation, but Cairns hasn’t given up hope of reeling in Larne.

Larne’s loss on Saturday means Glebe didn’t lose ground in their bid to catch them.

Cairns added: “There’s no difference between us and Larne, but we still have to play them so it’s a big task.”

“We have to keep going, we still feel we are good enough to stay in the game but its just a little bit of luck and performing on the day, but we will keep going till the last game.”

Glebe Rangers: Mc Graw, Dobbin, Forgrave, Shepherd, Morrison, Kennoway, Parkhill, McCart, McCallister, Elder. Subs: Kane, McVicker, Wilson.