Kearney frustrated at recent results

For the second week in a row the Bannsiders finished pointless in a game they should have won. But failure to turn their possession in to goals is costing them dearly and leaving Kearney asking what more can he do.

“It’s very frustrating because you nearly get saturated to the point of asking what more can you do because I’m so happy with the squad that we have, I’m so happy with training, I’m so happy with our fitness levels and I’m so happy with the group of players and the team spirit we’re are full of good honest lads,” Kearney told Times Sport.

“There’s nothing more that you’d love but for them to get the success they deserve.

“We’ve seven points from seven games, but I can look at that spell and bar the late goals this week and also against Dungannon, I have so many positives to take out of the games.

“But the harsh reality is people are complaining it’s not good enough, I’ve a fair idea it’s not good enough and I know what I want. Nobody goes out to lose games and we all go out to do our best.

“I didn’t question anyone’s hunger, work or desire after Saturday’s game I know they gave their all, they are an honest bunch and they work as hard as I ask them to.

“But it’s not about possession stats, the simple harsh reality is goals win games, it’s the hardest thing to do though. If we go one up it would have been more than enough to get the three points on Saturday.”

Kearney is pleased with the level of performance from his side.

“In the two-and-a-half years I’ve been at this club I would say the last six or seven games have been the most consistent performance wise in that whole time,” he said.

“I think people are very disrespectful to a lot of teams in this league. They expect us just to turn up and roll teams over. We are fully aware that’s not the league we play in, nor would we want to because it needs to be competitive.

“There is such a parity between about 70% of the teams in this league.

“But just as we have done over the last few weeks we’ve dominated the play on Saturday for 60-70 minutes but we get punished by one individual mistake.

“This league is 100% about how strong you are mentally. There’s lots of good footballers in this country but it’s about how you cope and react to defeats.

“We’ve just been thrown two absolute sucker punches twice in as many weeks, but I’ve said to the lads what are you going to do feel sorry for yourselves and go out and be edgy and not want the ball or are you going to come out stronger and demand the ball and go and put it right and that’s the type of player we want here.

“We are creating chances which is positive. Everyone raves about our win at Cliftonville like it was one big performance but we took our chances that night. In other games we’ve had the same level of performance but haven’t took our chances.”

Kearney had a special word of praise for debut goal scorer Eoin Bradley.

“You don’t play at that standard and in front of the crowds he plays in front of without having talent,” he said.

“The position he plays in GAA is very movement based so all those aspects are there, but he does a lot of it with the ball in his hand the key thing for us is to get his legs up to speed.

“But he had a lot of nice touches and some nice link up play.

“He was in the right place to get the goal.”