Scolty misses trip to Windsor Park

The Drumahoe club were hammered 4-0 in their last league out and boss Paul Kee wants his players to show more determination at Windsor Park.

“The league has caught us now,” he stated.

“We’ve played everybody now but Portadown didn’t have to get out of second gear. We lacked energy, lacked intensity, lacked drive.

“It was a totally unacceptable performance and as a staff we’ll have to review that for the Linfield game.”

“It doesn’t matter if you are playing Portadown, Warrenpoint, Ballinamallard, Crusaders, Cliftonville or Linfield, if you don’t play with the effort, commitment and attitude then you are going to come unstuck.

“If we don’t win first or second balls, not making bigger efforts then we are going to get done again.”

The Stute gaffer will be without centre back Mark Scoltock through suspension and Kee concedes he could make a number of changes, as he looks to freshen things up.

“There is players who needs games and I have been disappointed with one or two performances in the last couple of games, so I’ll sit down with the staff this week and see where we go,” he added.

“We need to freshen up a wee bit, as I said there are one or two players who have been playing in the team recently but their performances haven’t been as high as what we would have liked.

“They have got by with displays and they might think that ‘they are doing OK’ and that’s fine, but myself and the staff will have a chat with all the players about that.”

Kee also remarked that he’s already looking ahead to January’s transfer window.

“As a staff we sat down last week and discussed about the transfer window, where do we need to strengthen and who can we get in, but we still have some time before that.”