Inver Reds aim to bounce back

Inver boss Davy McAlinden admitted to not knowing a lot about the Breda Park outfit who are much-changed from last season, but the meticulous manager will have learned quite a bit ahead of match day.

“I had them watched on Saturday,” he revealed. “I think that’s an important part of our preparation. The man in the stand is someone I know well and trust and I believe it is a great help to know something about the opposition based on their very latest performance.”

McAlinden cut a despondent figure after the 2-1 home defeat to Lisburn Distillery.

“We took the lead early on and never really pressed on, despite having lots of chances throughout the rest of the game.

“Distillery, to be fair, stayed in the game, got back on terms and then scored on the counter-attack to snatch the points. We had chances from corners, long throws and open play.

“But, on reflection, I would say it was just one of those days when we didn’t take advantage of the opportunities. Balls were being delivered into the box and either we had nobody there to apply the finish or, if we had, they failed to grasp the opportunities.

“But it’s nothing to do with our lack of abilityup front because we have scored 24 goals in the league and that’s not a bad return for 11 matches. So I would not be too critical of the forwards.

“It was really frustrating because we had enough chances to comfortably win two games, but we have no choice but to learn from the experience and move on.

“It hardly needs saying that we must now focus on the Knockbreda match and concentrate on avoiding an unwanted hat-trick of defeats.”