Town’s run of late strikes down to strong belief, says O’Sullivan

ALAN O’Sullivan knows all about scoring late goals following his 95th minute winner to give Warrenpoint Town their first win of the season against Cliftonville last week — and he felt that the Point’s last-gasp leveller away to Newry City on Friday night was just rewards for the work done behind the scenes.

Philip Donnelly glanced home Ciaran O’Connor’s cross a minute into stoppage time to earn Stephen McDonnell’s men a point after James Walker put the hosts in front with a penalty three minutes after the break.

“It’s testament to what the coaching staff have instilled in us,” said O’Sullivan (above).

“Everyone is aware that we didn’t make the best start and it as tough for us to lose six in a row. But it shows the belief we have in the dressing room. It’s not a fluke that it happened two weeks in a row. Even after we scored, we still had one or two half chances where we could have nicked the win again.

“It shows the character we have in there to go and snatch the goal, get another point and hopefully we keep climbing the table.” The huge crowd at The Showgrounds on Friday night was testament to the wide appeal of the first meeting between the sides in the top flight.

While Newry are mainly based around players from the area, Warrenpoint are primarily made up of Dundalk natives. But O’Sullivan said the squad was aware of the importance of the match.

“I’m from Dublin myself and there’s only Stevie Moan in our squad from the area. The manager said to us how much it means to the fans and how much of a big deal it was and we could see that from social media during the week,” he said.