By Neil Watson
BANGOR head to Shamrock Park this Saturday afternoon (3pm) looking to bounce back from recent disappointments.
A fine run of form had propelled them to fourth position in the Premiership and saw manager Lee Feeney pick up the Manager of the Month award for October, but the Seasiders have lost both of their last two league outings to injury time goals.
While those results have been hard to take, Feeney has been pleased with the performance of his men as he prepares them to do battle with Portadown this weekend.
The Seasiders have already recorded a win over Niall Currie’s Ports this season when they struck four goals at Shamrock Park back in September, and Bangor supporters will be hoping for more of the same this weekend.
“Looking at the last two league defeats, there is a sense of frustration because we could be going into Saturday’s match on the back of a six-game unbeaten run,” said a rueful Feeney.
“We’ll bottle up the hurt from the way we have lost the last two league games and look to use that to our advantage in another massive game against Portadown.
“We’re learning that it’s really fine margins in the Premiership and we will need to manage that a bit better.
“There are plenty of positives from Saturday that we can look to build on against Portadown,” he added. “I was really pleased with how we got ourselves back into the game on Saturday and that’s because we have character in abundance in the squad.
“I felt at half-time we could get something from the game and that didn’t change even when we went two goals behind. I was happy with the performance, particularly in the second half. I’m just disappointed that we didn’t get anything from the game because we definitely deserved something, especially for our showing in the second half.”
Reflecting on Saturday’s defeat, Feeney pointed to defensive lapses which handed Ballymena United three goals. The Seasiders fought back valiantly and had momentum with them when they levelled the scores with 10 minutes remaining.
With the game turned on its head, Bangor thought they could go on and grab a winner – but instead it was Ballymena United who struck the decisive goal.
For Feeney, he has no regrets about chasing a win. “With about five minutes left of normal time I spoke with (assistant) John Douglas and we asked each other if we should just try to see out the draw,” he continued.
“But both of us agreed that if there was going to be another goal in the game then it would be for us. As it was, the goal we ended up conceding wasn’t even from a counter-attack where we have thrown men forward, we had plenty of bodies back defending and we should have done better with it.
“Maybe we could have managed the game a bit better and kept possession more and looked to run down the clock, but we were at home and I thought we had a really good opportunity to go and get the winning goal.
“There are lessons to be learned certainly, but I’ve no regrets for the decision because I really thought we would go on and get the winner at the time.
“I don’t remember Ballymena dictating the game or outplaying us, yet they got handed three goals which was really poor for us. I think all three goals were very, very avoidable and that’s the biggest disappointment I have.”
