‘We’re going in the right direction’

I THOUGHT that the lads battled well on Saturday.

They showed the same fight, determination and will to win again. Unfortunately all three of our substitutions were forced, two due to injuries and Jay Magee had to be taken off through sickness.

Jay had a bug and was sweating in the changing room and was sick at half-time as well. I know he made a mistake for the first goal but in my eyes, Jay was brilliant for us. He gave me so much in the situation that he was in and I can’t ask for anything more than that from my players.

The goals were disappointing. Jay made a mistake for the first one but if it was any other player in the Irish League, it probably wouldn’t have been a goal because he still had a lot to do. It was Peter Thompson though and he’s renowned for scoring goals.

Cameron Grieve then got left in for the second one as the other three defenders pushed out but again it’s a quality finish and Rory (Patterson) is probably one of the only players who would have finished it. Linfield have a lot of quality up front and it showed on Saturday.

We had a few chances of our own and we could have scored a couple of goals but it wasn’t to be. We’re going in the right direction and if we’d have scored at the right time, it might have been a different story.

If you look at it over the 90 minutes though, Linfield probably deserved the win and I’m not taking anything away from them.