Gray delighted by players’ attitude and insists ’Point are looking up

Open window: Barry Gray hoping for a busy January

WARRENPOINT Town boss Barry Gray has praised the attitude of his players, insisting standards have been raised at the club since his arrival.

Town remain bottom of the table, but ahead of today’s home game with Larne, Gray claims the club is on the up after a desperate start to the campaign.

The former Cliftonville boss returned to Milltown in October for his second spell in charge following the departure of Stephen McDonnell.

The highlights so far have been home victories over Coleraine and Ballymena United. There have been defeats too but Gray, who plans a busy January in the transfer window, feels that with Warrenpoint trailing Institute by three points they can be optimistic for the new year.

He adds that himself and assistant Gavin Dykes are determined to push the team on.

“When we took over standards were very poor and very low and the only way to get out of that was to work our way through it, and the players have been brilliant,” said Gray.

“We have had patches where we’ve had to drag them and we’ve had patches where they have easily stepped forward but there is one thing we can’t fault and that is the attitude of the players. That has been immense.

“We know we are not the easiest to listen to at times. Myself and Dykesy come from backgrounds where standards are very important for us and every week we are challenged with more injuries and tough opposition but there are lots of positives since we have come in.”

Gray is intent on adding forward strength and goals to his panel.

He says: “We can’t do anything about the balance of the team or the lack of strikers at this point in time but we are working hard in the background to try and fix that for January. The players know that as well and until then we just have to keep working and try to get results.”

On loan Blues aces Lorcan Forde and Brandon Doyle, who both missed last week’s defeat by Linfield, return today along with another Linfield loanee Eamon Scannell.