By Neil Watson
BANGOR manager Lee Feeney knows his side need a result when they take on Crusaders at Seaview this Saturday afternoon (3pm).
The Seasiders boss has seen his men suffer four league defeats in a row, two of which have been against teams in the bottom half of the table.
Now, preparing to face a Crusaders side who occupy 11th place in the table and sit seven points behind Bangor with two games in hand, Feeney has urged his side to react positively if they want to secure Premiership football for next season.
“There’s no shying away from how important Saturday’s game with Crusaders is, as is the following week at home to Glenavon,” he said.
“If we want to stay in the Premiership then we need to get something from these games.
“February was always a big month for us in terms of fixtures because we are playing teams in and around us. When you lose those games then it makes the next game even bigger.
“I was disappointed we didn’t get anything out of the game with Carrick Rangers last week and the same goes for the Cliftonville game too.
“We’ve shown a bit of a weakness that we haven’t done up until now. I always expected a bit of a dip to come through mental fatigue but we need to pick ourselves up and finish strongly, starting with Saturday against Crusaders.”
If Bangor are to bounce back from Tuesday night’s defeat in north Belfast, then Feeney wants his side to be better in both penalty boxes. The Seasiders missed a series of chances at Solitude and were punished by Jim Magilton’s Cliftonville side.
Having conceded the opening goal just before half-time, Bangor levelled the scores after the break but fell behind again just 60 seconds later.
As they looked to gain momentum and forced home goalkeeper Lewis Ridd into a stunning save, Bangor were again left reeling as Cliftonville hit their third goal inside a matter of minutes of that chance.
The nature of those goals was a source of frustration for Feeney who pointed to his side’s lack of experience in managing big moments in the top division.
“I thought we were poor in Cliftonville’s penalty area in the first half with the number of chances we had,” reflected the Bangor boss.
“Then having defended quite well in the first half we were so poor in our own penalty box after we equalised. “The goals we conceded were really poor and came at really bad times in the game,” he said.
“We had Mark Haughey back in defence for the first time since his injury on Boxing Day, but outside of him we had so little Premiership experience in our team and I think that cost us.”
Feeney continued: “We didn’t have the know-how or the game management to see out key moments. “After we got the equaliser we should have got behind the ball and refocused before working our way back into the game. “But we didn’t do that. We switched off and let runners get in behind us and they scored a goal straight away.
“We don’t have too many players who have played at this level and that hurt us. On the other hand Cliftonville have a group of senior players who have been around the league for years and have that know-how.”
