‘We need a bit of luck’ says McCann

The Whites dominated last week’s meeting with Coleraine, but it was the Bannsiders who claimed the three points and went back to the top of the table, leaving Distillery rooted to the bottom once again.

McCann’s men have not been outplayed this season, but it is the erratic finishing in front of goal that has seen them fail to get their Danske Premiership season up and running.

With Glenavon visiting New Grosvenor tomorrow full of confidence after their win over Crusaders, McCann knows his side need to start taking their chances ahead of a tricky run of fixtures in the coming weeks.

“I was more disappointed with Saturday’s result than probably any other result, including Ballinamallard,” said McCann. “We bossed the game from start to finish, so it was a case of three points dropped. Even shaking hands with Oran Kearney after the game he said, ‘I’m embarrassed to take three points off you, you absolutely hammered us from start to finish,’ but when you don’t take your chances you don’t deserve to win the game. We had 12 chances - half of which were easy chances - yet they had three chances in the whole game and scored two.”

The Whites have been working hard in training on their finishing this week, whilst the boss has opened his door to his players to come and talk to him if they have any concerns.

“We have worked on our finishing in training this week, finishing from this angle or that. We need to take our chances, but we also need that bit of luck.

“Oran Kearney told me we’ve been the best team they’ve played so far, which is encouraging but not good enough for me. Obviously I want the good performances, but I want the points too. I want both. We need to be more ruthless in front of goal and we need to take the pressure off the defence.

“Creating chances and not taking them is the most frustrating thing in the world. I’ve told the lads we can only do so much for you as coaches and management, we can’t physically go out and put the ball in the back of the net for you.

“I’ve told the players to relax on the ball and to go and prove to everyone what you can do. I’ve had one to one chats with the players and told them that anytime they want to chat with me, they can come to me. I used to be a player myself, I know what it’s like, I want them to not be afraid to come to me.

“When I took over I knew the job I had to do and I knew it would take time, it just doesn’t turn around over night, we have got to be patient.”

McCann is expecting another tough test at home to Glenavon, but he is confident his side can pick up the points.

“I am seeing improvement every week, but after Glenavon we are away at the Oval, away at Windsor and at home to Cliftonville, so three points this Saturday would set us up brilliantly. The players would have no fear, they wouldn’t feel the pressure and we would be off the bottom.

“We need to push on and keep going. We need to be picking up points every game. There is nothing to fear in that league, our performances are no worse than those at the top, the one difference is they are getting the points.

“I’m expecting a very difficult game against Glenavon. They’ve two good centre forwards in Bates and Hamilton and will have their tails up and a confidence about them after last week’s win.

“They are three points above us, if we win we will draw level with them and that is the way we’re looking at it.

“The boys have been training hard and performing well. I’m hoping we will start and see the rewards from that sooner rather than later.”