A sigh of relief as new boys up and running

IT was a day for breaking ducks and removing monkeys off backs on Saturday with the first points on the board for Rodney McAree and Kris Lindsay.

If you are going to win your first match you may as well make champions Crusaders your victims and that was the case for McAree as Gareth McConaghie’s cheeky free-kick gave Coleraine a vital win.

The big man’s reaction as he sprinted (I didn’t think he could run that quickly) to celebrate with McAree showed the pressure had been mounting, as he admitted afterwards.

“That one was for Rodney. He has been under the microscope since Oran Kearney left for St Mirren and I know this result means everything to him,” he said.

And McAree also voiced his relief at getting a notch in the W column at last. “It’s certainly a monkey off our back and a super three points. It’s all about winning and everyone wanted to tell us we hadn’t won a game yet,” he said.

That is still the case, in the league, for Lindsay at Dungannon, but having watched them for a second time on Saturday since he took over, they are definitely going in the right direction, picking up his first point.

It was also interesting to quiz the rookie boss on the difficulties in taking over from McAree, a man who has Dungannon Swifts in his DNA, and making his own voice heard. “I knew a good lot of the players from an outsider’s point of view and with coaching at Glenavon, but it takes a wee while for them to get used to the way me and my staff want to work and for me to find out things about them,” he explained.

“Last week when we didn’t have a game was a good week, because we did a few things on the training pitch and got to know each other a bit better, but we still have a hell of a lot of work to do.

“We’re still sitting bottom of the league so we have to start progressing and start picking up points and hopefully the wins will come and we’ll start moving up the league. “But the players are buying into it and it will take time to break habits, but the signs are pleasing and it is something we are just going to have to continually work on.”

Two good men at two good clubs and hopefully the start of better times for both of them to come.