Ards can’t let Bannsiders change become distraction, warns Taylor

ARDS defender Johnny Taylor insists his team can’t allow Oran Kearney’s move to St Mirren to cloud their vision in today’s clash with Coleraine at the Bangor Fuels Arena.

While Kearney began life in Scotland last night with a home tie against Glasgow giants Celtic, the Bannsiders will arrive in County Down this afternoon determined to carry on his good work — they have lost only three times in 54 domestic games.

Taylor reckons this will be one of Ards’ biggest tests so far — even though they grabbed an impressive 0-0 draw with Linfield last time out.

“All the talk will be about Oran Kearney’s move, but we can’t af- ford to let that cloud our focus,” he said. “We have worked hard all week and we’ve got a game plan set up.

“I watched Coleraine against Crusaders and they were excellent. They have threats all over the park. We’ll need to be at our best to get any kind of result. It will be two competitive teams going at each other. It will be tough, but we are looking forward to it.”

Although Ards currently sit in 10thposition,Tayloradmitsthey have set the bar a lot higher.

He added: “It would be nice to kick on into a mid-table position. Our budget falls well short of a lot of club but we’ll go about our business quietly.

“We are working with a smaller squad, but what we do have is a lot of quality in the side. There is no reason why we can’t kick on.”