New-look Town can get even better, insists Gray

BARRY Gray’s Warrenpoint Town have raised a few eyebrows so far. Considered relegation fodder by many before the start of the Danske Bank Premiership campaign, the County Down club today sit in a healthy sixth place in the league table.

They backed up impressive performances against the top two clubs Larne and Linfield — they took four from a possible six points — by battling out a scoreless draw from their midweek visit to big-spending Glentoran.

Gray believes there is more to come from his new-look team.

“I have 17 new players in from last January and they are basically now only settling in,” said the former Cliftonville boss. “We are happy for what they have done so far.

“We only have a 21-man panel, so it doesn’t leave a lot of the old guard. With the Covid break and all the rest, we’ve had very little game time for those players to familiarise themselves with each other. So, we are seeing week in, week out an improvement. We have a lot of boys unfamiliar with the league because they are coming from over the border.

“It will take them the first round of fixtures to see what they are up against and to get the feel of the opposition. It’s something that I’ve got to be patient with, which is not my strongest point, but we are getting there. We are sticking together, I know we can get better.”

Gray will be hoping the improvement continues when Gary Hamilton brings his Glenavon side to the Q Radio Arena this afternoon for the final round of matches before football again closes down until the New Year because of the pandemic.

“Glenavon is another tough game,” he added. “I watched them in midweek against Cliftonville. They are much better than their league position suggests. They have been really unfortunate in certain games this season, things have gone against them.

“It’s going to be a really difficult 90 minutes.

“The key thing was to get the Glentoran game out of the way with no knocks or injuries that would affect team selection for Saturday.

“We’ve had a tough run: Coleraine, Glentoran away and then Glenavon at home. The way the league is, there is nothing easy.

“We have done well, but we are only nine or 10 games in, so we’ll not become carried away.”