By Rory McKee
LEE Feeney reiterated that there is still ‘a long way to go’ in the race for promotion to the Premiership after his Bangor side failed to pick up maximum points from last weekend’s derby clash with Ards. With wins for Limavady United and Harland and Wolff Welders on Saturday, the Seasiders saw their cushion at the league summit eaten into. While the chasing pack both faltered in midweek as they played fixtures in hand, boss Feeney is all too aware of the twists and turns which lie ahead as the season enters the business end.“ There is a long way still to go – there are 33 league points still to play for,” he said. “We knew that even when we were 12 points clear, we weren’t going to stay there. Being top comes with a lot of pressure and there are people at the club who maybe haven’t been in this position before,” added the Bangor manager.“ You hear managers saying they’d rather be at the top than chasing, and I know I would [prefer that situation], but you have to be able to deal with the pressure of that.“ It’s not often we don’t score – I think that’s three times in the league all season we haven’t scored and two of those have come against Ards. The other was against Annagh who have the best defensive record in the Championship.“We need to be a bit more ruthless,” continued the Kilkeel man. “We had enough chances to score but it wasn’t to be. Ards obviously had a game plan and they were probably more pleased with the draw than us.“We spoke about players needing to step up in the big moments and we didn’t have that on Saturday. Ards defended really, really well but I felt we created enough chances to win the game.“ Endeavour and desire gets you so far but you do need quality and special moments.” Feeney bolstered his squad heavily in the January transfer window and has been pleased with the impact made by his new additions so far.“ We’ve had three clean sheets since Patrick [Solis Grogan] has come in, so that’s a big positive. And we have got depth all over the place with our other new signings. Mick Morgan is a threat and Jack O’Mahony and Jack Reilly gave us loads of energy from the bench on Saturday.“ We have been unlucky at times this year, but we know that if we continue to play well and keep clean sheets, the goals will come for us.”
