Kee gutted with Irish cup exit

The Drumahoe club not for the first time this season lost out on a penalty shoot-out and it was the Whites who booked their place in the fifth round.

“Our creative play is just not there,” stated Kee.

“When you miss the likes of (Aaron) Walsh and (Michael) McCrudden, it takes away from your offensive aspect and we didn’t do enough. When the chances came along we didn’t score the goals and that was the problem.

“It’s disappointing to go out because we wanted a cup run this year but it didn’t happen.”

The ’Stute gaffer did concede that the visitor’s plan of taking the game to spot-kicks worked.

“We pushed on in extra-time and tried to win it but it didn’t happen in the final third,” he added.

“They defended resolutely and they got boys behind the ball and they made lots of fouls so they were happy for it to go to penalties. Their plan has worked but ours hasn’t.

“Teams are now working very hard against us and we have to go up another level and that’s the challenge for them now. Let’s see if they can.”

The Waterside men have drawn five, lost once and won one in their previous seven games, something which is worrying Kee.

“We’re not getting enough wins and that’s the problem,” he added.

“Technically speaking that’s another draw over the 90 minutes so you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out that we’re not scoring enough goals. Some players are inexperienced, their confidence is down and there’s a fear factor, but we have to work through that.

“It’s disappointing but there’s definitely a confidence issue in the last six or seven weeks but it’s part of the growing up process.

“Some people have let us down with silly red cards but we have also been hard done by in that regard because Michael McCrudden should not have been sent off against Dundela and we would have needed him against Distillery.

“We’re not getting the rub of the green so we just have to work harder and prepare as best we can.”