Kee’s harsh words payoff after late fight back

Kee felt his players were more relaxed after the break and they deserved a share of the spoils against Ballinamallard United, on Saturday.

“They let the shackles off in the second half,” he conceded.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s this trepidation and fear in the team. The most pleasing thing in the second half was that we had a go.

“We didn’t ignore the elephant in the room and we went at it after conceding the early goal.

“We asked them to out-battle, outrun and outfight Ballinamallard and that’s what they did in the second half.

“The pitch was difficult for both teams but it definitely doesn’t suit our style and that’s not being disrespectful to the people who work on it because they are giving it their best, but it’s heavy and it bobbles and when you have good, creative payers like (Michael) McCrudden, it doesn’t help.

“But the players have done what we asked them to do. There was a wee bit more freedom with the performance, a bit more freshness and that’s the most pleasing thing.

“There were seven or eight players all making good contributions and that’s what we need now going into the last three games before the split.”

Kee also remarked that goalkeeper Martin Gallagher played his part in Saturday’s score-draw, as he made a few top saves at crucial times in the game. Gallagher has had somewhat of a topsy turvy season but now has the number one jersey to himself.

“We told them at half time to lift it and in fairness they did, they went out and give it a right good go and had a few good efforts. In fairness they’ve had efforts as well and I was pleased in particular with Marty Gallagher, who played well.

“In these games you need your goalkeeper to play well and he has. In fairness to the forward players, they’ve given their best and they’ve tried to get their goals, but we just lacked the final ball or that bit of creativity to get the winner.”

The Waterside men continue to concede goals and Kee admits his players need to tighten things up at the back.

“We need to defend better 100 per cent because every time we concede we then need two goals to win a game and we haven’t exactly been fluent in front of goal,” he added.

“We need to be more resilient. The players know they need to do better with their defending and they recognise that.

“The only plus is that we got the second goal, because that was always going to be crucial. We got it and that gave us the momentum to kick on. If they had gotten it, it probably would have been goodnight Irene. We can’t keep conceding silly goals.

“We need to score first and then go on the ascendency and that’s what we’ll do because we’re not expected to get anything in the next three games.

“The likes of Crusaders and Linfield in particular will be smelling blood because they are going for the league so we just have to prepare the best we can for it.

“That’s why the players are here, to play in those types of games and I’m sure everyone will enjoy them.”