Oran eyes new faces

With Gareth Tommons heading to Australia at the end of January and doubts hanging over Leon Knight’s long term future at The Showgrounds, the Bannsiders boss is hoping to add a midfielder and a striker to his panel.

“We will be looking for a couple of new faces to come in,” Kearney told Times Sport.

“Gareth is obviously heading away at the end of January, so I feel we’ll need a replacement in there.

“And if I’m being honest I’d like another striker. We’ve a few things in the pipeline, but we’ll just have to see what the month brings for us.

“But we’ve made two signings already in Kyle McVey and Michael Hegarty.

“In this entire season they haven’t been anywhere near selection so all of a sudden there will be two senior pros in the squad which is absolutely fantastic for us.”

With the season at the midway point and a cup final on the horizon, Kearney knows the importance of having enough players on board.

“The squad is being stretched to the maximum at the minute,” he said.

“But to be fair to everyone has pulled their weight and there has been a lot of big performances from the guys over the last month.

“We’re on the crest of a wave at the minute in terms of injuries.

“We have a lot of boys just ready to tip over the edge.

“The big one is David Scullion. We didn’t want to risk him on the 3G up at Cliftonville. And again we felt the Glentoran game would be too much for him in a game of that intensity with a hamstring problem.

“There are some big games coming up that he’ll definitely be involved in. He will have four good sessions under his belt ahead of the Boxing Day game.

“Johnny Black’s groin is coming along well so we’ll keep monitoring him.

“Michael Doherty is still a bit sore, he has a lot of bruising around his kidney and ribs so it’ll be a case of wait and see.

“He is chomping at the bit to get back, he was half wanting to take pain killers and play against the Glens, he is just a different breed.

“Unfortunately though Damien McNulty rolled his foot in the warm up last Saturday and it looks like he has a hairline fracture in the same metatarsal as Kyle.

“So it looks as though he will miss the next four weeks.

“But that shows the importance of having a squad. At the start of the season everyone was saying how will we ever keep four centre backs happy, and now we’re down to two.

“As I said it has been a tough month so the guys who need to be pampered over the next few days will get their rest.

“It’s an old cliché but it really is a case of taking it one game at a time.

“Once you start looking too far ahead you end up getting a big custard pie in the face.

“There are big games every week in this league and you just have to keep focusing on the next one.”