Saturday's performance the worst of my career

The former Cliftonville and Coleraine gaffer started off his stint as Glenavon boss in fantastic fashion as his side picked up 18 points from their last 11 league games last season in order to stave off relegation. This season started off in fantastic fashion too, as Quinn’s men gained 27 points from their first 13 Carling Premiership outings.

However, since then the Blues have won just three points in 11 games and Quinn claims that Saturday’s embarrassment was the lowest point in the recent slump.

“I can’t remember any of my teams in all my years of Irish League management being as bad as that,” he fumed.

“I’m just coming into my year anniversary at the club now and it’s been a real rollercoaster ride with many highs and real lows from the last couple of months. I think Saturday’s performance was the lowest of the low.

“We were absolutely brutal and were all over the place. That was epitomised in their first goal with the stupidity of our defending as two players went to the ball and left Liam Boyce unmarked in the box.

“Andrew Plummer did alright and Hugh Davey started off pretty good but outside of that I don’t think there was anyone that came out of the game with any credit. The supporters were certainly venting their anger and frustration and they’re entitled to do that when they see the team going out and performing as they did. The fans are paying hard earned money to come to watch that and it’s not on.

“We did start off in a 4-5-1 formation which we had to quickly change and the next thing we knew we were putting Willo McDonagh in a wide area and that wasn’t right but on the day we thought he might contain Ronan Scannell from there.

“Anytime the ball went up the pitch towards Tony Grant he couldn’t hold on to it and it kept coming back at us. We tried to throw Willo up top and then Trevor Molloy but it wouldn’t have mattered what we did on the day. We were all so much off the pace of the game.”

The boss says that he is personally hurt by his team’s efforts on Saturday but was also keen to stress to supporters his desire to succeed in the job.

“I’m not in the business of taking performances personally but I was hurt on Saturday,” he told the ‘MAIL.’

“I think I might have cut a lonely figure after they scored their second goal and it was lonely standing there listening to the comments but that’s all part and parcel of the job.

“I’ve been there before and I’ve always battled my way back again. I’ll keep going and I’ll get it right. I’m confident that I can turn the club around and I’ve a real hunger and passion to do so.

“I want the fans to know that I’m not happy with it either and I won’t be tolerating performances like that. Jobs are on the line all over the place. It was a poor day all over; manager, coaching staff and players all need to have a hard look at themselves. I’ve done that and I’m up and running and ready to go again.”

Contrastingly, Quinn claimed that Cliftonville’s performance on the day was one of the best he’s seen in the Irish League and also tipped his former side for league glory this season.

“Cliftonville’s was one of the best performances I’ve seen from an Irish League side and on that form, I think they can win the league,” he told the ‘MAIL.’

“They’re better than Glentoran and Linfield and that was the best performance I’ve seen in quite a while.

“We were totally outplayed and all credit goes to Cliftonville who took advantage of a poor Glenavon side. They passed the ball well and they were streets ahead of us in every department. They could have won the game by four or five goals and it wouldn’t have been an injustice.

“We were flattered by the 2-0 result. Anyone looking at that might think that it was a hard fought game for Cliftonville but it wasn’t like that at all.”