Schedule giving us a taste of full-time life, says Point chief
PART-TIME versus full-time. It’s becoming the lay of the land in the Irish League.
Warrenpoint Town v Glentoran tonight is an example of that, though, given the schedule this season, Milltown manager Barry Gray suggests his players could be forgiven for thinking they are full-timers.
“The boys have been so professional with the way they have handled the schedule. They haven’t yapped or cried about anything,” he said.
“We are part-time but I’ve thought to myself we haven’t been part-time for the last six weeks and we certainly won’t be part-time for the next six weeks.
“You have recovery sessions for boys on a Sunday, you are in on Monday, you have a game on Tuesday, you are in on Thursday, some tactical stuff on a Friday and you have another game on a Saturday. There are very little days off there for our part-time players who are trying to squeeze in another 40 hours a week in work.
“You have to be honest and say to yourself it’s crackers, but full credit to our players who are just getting on with it and delivering very consistent high energy performances.”
Town will need another one this evening against a side that will be able to freshen their starting XI from the weekend without weakening it too much.
Glentoran won 2-0 at Milltown earlier this month, though the headlines after that match were made by the refereeing performance of Ross Dunlop, with Gray receiving a disciplinary warning from the football authorities for his post game comments about the Carrickfergus official.
Ahead of their latest meeting with the fourth-placed Oval outfit, Gray said: “There was very little in the last game but, with their squad, the Glens could come with four or five new players in their lineup from Saturday.
“I don’t think they will fancy coming here because we do make it difficult for teams at the top of the table. We don’t want to make it comfortable for them, though on the night we’ll need a bit of luck.
“We have Glentoran on Tuesday and are away to Carrick on Saturday. If we are looking at the two games, we know which is the most important to us, but we’ll look forward to the challenge of both.”
Town will be without Jake O’connor for six weeks after he dislocated his shoulder in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Ballymena. Impressive in recent weeks, he joins Daniel Byrne, Gavin Peers and Thomas Maguire, on loan from Cliftonville, on Warrenpoint’s long-term injury list.
Ninth in the table, Gray added: “We’ll target pushing on for seventh because we have nothing to lose. We need to look at those teams in mid-table and see if we can keep nipping at them, but our priority remains the sides beneath us because they are our must-win games, and we have to prioritise those games the best we can.”