Manager’s programme notes
Posted : 28th August 2021
A new Danske Bank NIFL Premiership campaign gets underway today with a home game against Crusaders.
We know how tough this challenge is going to be but we have worked hard in training, in preparation for hopefully getting our league season off to the best possible start.
We were hugely frustrated to be eliminated from Europe in Luxembourg after a game which we dominated and created numerous goal scoring opportunities in but unfortunately, we couldn’t convert them for a variety of reasons. Luck certainly wasn’t with us on the night and we definitely didn’t get the result we deserved. That’s football. It can be a cruel game on occasions and now, our focus is on aiming to do well domestically, so that we can hopefully get another crack at European football next year.
I want to welcome our new signings Martin Donnelly and Matthew Green. Martin has a wealth of experience in this league with Crusaders, Cliftonville and Larne and he’s settled in very well already with the squad. Matthew has a lot of experience at a good level in England and he will add to the striking options within the squad.
Navid Nasseri has moved on to Larne after his one season with us and I want to thank him for the contribution he made during his time with us.
Our long term injury absentees Kyle McClean and Jake Corbett continue to make progress. Jack Ruddy is also recovering well from injury and it was pleasing to see Jordan Stewart return from injury, playing for an hour in last week’s win by Linfield Swifts in the Steel and Sons Cup at Windsor Park.
Cameron Palmer and Trai Hume have been called up to the international under 21 squad for their upcoming games agsinst Malta and Slovakia and with David Walsh on the standby list, this has led to the postponement of our upcoming games against Glentoran and Ballymena.
I want to wish our chaplain Rev. Bill Lavery well in his well earned retirement and thank him for the pastoral care he has provided for countless players and staff over the years.
It’s the first time we will have had a near normal attendance at a League game for quite some time and I’m looking forward to hearing our supporters in the North Stand today getting behind each and every one of our players, as we aim to get the positive result we want to send everyone home happy.
It’s been an incredibly tough 18 months or so for supporters and hopefully, today will mark the first major step towards a return to the normality we have all missed.
It’s been so pleasing to see a return to action for our various underage teams, the Swifts, Rangers, under 16s and younger Academy teams. These young players have all missed their football enormously and it’s great to see football at this level getting back up and running again.
Thank you for your support of this club, whether it’s by buying season tickets and / or the new playing shirts and we will be doing all we can to try and bring you the success we all want.