Manager’s programme notes
Posted : 3rd August 2021
Tonight we welcome CS Fola Esch of Luxembourg to Windsor Park for our UEFA Conference League third round, first leg tie and after their positive result against Shakhtyor Soligorsk, the champions of Belarus in the previous round, they will be full of belief that they can reach the play-off round in a few weeks time.
However, we experienced the highs of reaching the play-offs of a European competition two years ago and it’s something we want to achieve again, and indeed progress beyond.
We were delighted with our performances and results in the previous round against FK Borac Banja Luka, the champions of Bosnia and a side who had taken Cluj of Romania to the last minute of extra time in the preceding round.
To win the home leg by a 4-0 margin was a fantastic result at this level and the quality of all of our goals was first class. We got the perfect start with an early goal from Michael Newberry and the fact we got a fourth goal in injury time from Jimmy Callacher showed how good the fitness levels are across the squad at this very early stage of the season.
We followed that clean sheet up with another one in the heat of Banja Luka to come away with a scoreless draw, to progress on aggregate to tonight’s eagerly anticipated game against the very welcome champions of Luxembourg.
I had to miss out on the trip to Bosnia due to personal reasons and I want to pay tribute to my very capable assistant manager Ross Oliver who stepped up, in my absence and kept everything as normal as possible, to see us over the line in challenging conditions and surroundings.
Several players and other members of the staff also missed the trip due to injury or various personal matters but we will hopefully have most of them back tonight.
Jake Corbett and Kyle McClean are our longer term injury absentees and they continue to make progress on the road to recovery.
We should have Ross Larkin, Adam Carroll and Chris Shields back in the squad tonight and hopefully, Jordan Stewart and Jack Ruddy will be available for selection in the very near future.
I want to pay tribute to our young squad who performed so well in the Super Cup NI game against Manchester United under 16s in Ballyclare on Friday night. I know we have some excellent young players making good progress at underage levels in our Academy.
I want to offer my condolences to the family of one of my predecessors, Tommy Leishman who sadly passed away in Scotland recently. Tommy’s achievement in steering this club to the quarter-finals of the European Cup in March 1967 earned him and his team their place among the immortals of this club.
It was great to have supporters in attendance at the home game against FK Borac Banja Luka a fortnight ago and the noise they generated for each of our four goals was terrific. I understand there will be more supporters in attendance at tonight’s game and it’s great to see restrictions being relaxed by the NI Executive, as we slowly but hopefully surely, emerge from the shadow that has been cast over all our lives by the pandemic.
Hopefully, we can give all our supporters more to cheer with a positive performance and result tonight, to take to Luxembourg for next week’s second leg.