A FRUSTRATED Lee Feeney believes his Bangor side never stood a chance when they travelled to Inver Park last Friday night.
The Seasiders were second best on the night and needed a brilliant performance from goalkeeper Gareth Deane to prevent the home side, and current league leaders Larne, from running rampant.
Despite a lifeline goal at the start of the second half, Bangor’s uphill task became all the harder when captain Lewis Harrison was sent off after picking up his second booking.
But it was less about on the pitch and more about the scheduling of the fixture that annoyed Feeney.
Originally scheduled to take place on Saturday afternoon, Larne exercised their right within the NI Football League rules by giving Bangor six weeks notice of their desire to shift the match to Friday night.
With Larne operating under a full-time model, Feeney pointed to the vast differences in how both sides were able to prepare for Friday night’s clash.
“We had no chance of winning that game,” conceded the Bangor manager.
“Our boys will have been up from 6am to go and work for eight or nine hours. Some of them had to get changed in their cars after work to get ready for travelling to Larne and they will all have had their pre-match meals on their way to the ground.
“Compare our preparation to Larne’s,” he said. “Their players will have been able to have massages, a proper pre-match meal and go through their stretches ahead of the game.
“It’s totally different, and it leads to the result, and also ultimately has led to injuries and suspensions because of tired players making tired tackles.”
With title chasing Coleraine visiting Clandeboye Park this Saturday (3pm), Feeney’s options are going to be stretched with Lewis Harrison, Tiarnan Mulvenna, Stephen McGuinness and Jay Boyd all missing out through suspension while Stephen Fallon will be ineligible to play against his parent club.
Feeney continued: “We now have four players suspended for this Saturday’s game, and we have another three or four injuries to contend with now.
“I’ve no argument about Lewis Harrison’s red card, they were two fouls and the referee made the right call. But I’ve sympathy for Lewis because they were very tired lunges and that’s the frustration I have.
“I like Friday night football, but it has to be part-time team against part-time team.
“When a full-time team changes the fixture to a Friday night – and there’s nothing that we can do to say no to that change – then it creates an unfair playing field.
“I’m not saying that Larne moved the game to get a competitive advantage over us, they get bigger crowds on a Friday night which is fine, but it’s frustrating because our hands are tied.
“If given the choice, none of our players would want to be playing against a full time team on a Friday night.”
Despite the challenge of going up against another full-time team in the shape of Coleraine this weekend, Feeney is looking to build on the positives from the defeat at Inver Park.
“The reaction from the boys after a battering in the first half was pleasing,” he said. “We could have laid down and folded but we battled back into the game. We were better in possession and caused Larne a few problems.
“Once we got the goal I thought we could really put Larne under pressure but the sending off made that difficult.
“The character and personality from the lads was first class. There is plenty of desire and hunger in this group, and the quality is there across the squad.
“There were some decent performances but Gareth Deane was superb on Friday night. He kept us in the game, no doubt about it.
“His performance was first class, and he has been brilliant since he came to the club in the summer. We’re very fortunate to have two top goalkeepers in him and Patrick Solis Grogan who are competing to play every week.”
