Kee not pressing any panic buttons

However he is slightly concerned about their recent dip in form, which has seen them pick up just seven points from a possible 18 on offer in recent weeks.

“At the end of the day we aren’t going to press any panic buttons, as it’s our first defeat of the season, but this was our worst performance of the season,” he conceded.

“However this result has been coming, because in some weeks we have been slow in starting games, we have been second to the ball and conceded soft goals and that’s exactly what happened at Ballyclare.

“You can look all over the pitch at aspects of our play, it’s soft, it’s not hungry enough and we didn’t do anything to meet their desire, we tried to play, we tried to get going but they kept coming at us, but they had an incentive to hold onto after they went in front.”

Kee also credited Eddie Hill’s team who seemed to use their recent Steels & Sons semi-final defeat to Immaculata as a motivational tool.

“In fairness to them they were hurting after coming off a bad result on Monday night in the Steels & Sons Cup, but overall they have had a successful season last year and this year they have only lost once at home, so they are a good unit.

“Having said all that it’s still not good enough for us, we didn’t look like the team who are second top in the table, we looked like the team who was second from the bottom of the table and I told the players that.

“I also told the players that their character has definitely got to be questioned. Ballyclare’s first two goals defensively were poor and from a goalkeeping perspective.”

The ’Stute gaffer reiterated that he isn’t going to slam his players too much.

“Obviously people are disappointed and supporters are making points about the players, which is fair enough, as you have to take the criticism when it comes, but the fact of the matter is the players have made a big effort this year and we have got ourselves into a position to challenge and that is through effort.

“Teams are now catching onto us, teams are stopping us and teams have a lot of hunger and desire to stop us and that is something we have to live with.

“Now if we can’t live with it then there’s no question that we’ll start slipping down the table and I have no doubt about that, but we have to try and increase the players mentality and we have to try and improve them.

“If I’m to be honest we might have to look at promoting a couple of players in January time, from either the youth side or by bringing in new players, because we just aren’t as sharp as I would want us to be.”