I WILL TURN IT AROUND

The title-winning boss had hopes of lifting the Lurgan Blues into the top half of the table this season but a series of poor performance put paid to those ambitions and it has been a familiarly disappointing term for the club’s supporters.

The frustration of all at the club was summed up with a poor 2-1 defeat to then basement side Institute on Tuesday evening and the gaffer slammed his side’s poor performance after the game whilst also telling fans that he won’t let there be many more nights like that at Mourneview Park once he stamps his mark on the Glenavon squad.

“I’m very down at this moment in time but this club have gone through a lot of managers and they’re not going to go through this one as easily as they have done with some of the previous ones,” said a visibly enraged yet resolute Quinn after the loss.

“I am determined to turn this club around. That is what keeps me going and until I get the right type of people around me I will struggle along.

“The players I had out there weren’t good enough. They can go to Windsor Park and they can put on a show for 45 minutes that was top drawer and then turn round and give us that. It’s not acceptable.

“That performance was as bad as I have witnessed from an Irish League team that I have been in charge of. The first 45 minutes were absolutely abysmal and the two goals just epitomised our night. It was an absolutely disgraceful performance. The second half wasn’t much better to be honest. We had loads of possession but we had no cutting edge and no quality. We had absolutely nothing out there.

“I deliberately kept the players on the pitch after the first half and told them to look into the stand at the fans. There was a match on TV - a top quality game between Arsenal and Barcelona and people could have stayed at home. They came out to support us and it (the performance) wasn’t good enough.

“I thought I might have got a response but I didn’t unfortunately and there are major repairs required. I question the players’ commitment, character and above all preparation over the holiday period. Did they have their sights set on a football match on Tuesday night? I would question whether some of the players had or not.

“Willo McDonagh was absolutely outstanding though. He played for the shirt and he epitomised everything I want from a player. We didn’t have enough players like that and we were out-battled. Institute are in a bad place at the minute and they’re very determined to get out of it. They showed that and fair play to them. We mugged them up in Dumahoe a few weeks ago and they got us back on Tuesday night. That’s the way it goes.”

Quinn is currently searching for new recruits to add to his ranks at Mourneview Park in order to make nights like Tuesday a thing of the past and says he will do all he can to put the best possible team on the pitch next season.

“Every manager has his hopes and desires to get players in but at the end of the day there’s not an awful lot out there at this moment in time,” he said.

“I can make excuses for this and that but I’m not going to do that. I’ll do my best to get a better type of player into the club and the board will do their best to subsidise what I might have in mind and that’s all I can say at this moment in time.”