Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
REC’S YOUNG IS NO KILJOY
John wants to lift spirit at the club
We are not saying we are going for promotion or anything like that, but we just want to be safe first and then we can build on that for next year and the players will have another year’s experience.”
That said with some impressive additions to the squad – the likes of former Glentoran man BJ Mcmenamin, highly-rated midfielder Rory Deegan, striker Shane Murray, Michael Mcgreevy and emerging youngsters Andrew Mccartan, Jack Lynas and Gary Straney – Young is determined not to set the bar too low either.
“We are about two senior players away from being a really good side and we are still looking to sign a few more players,” he said. “We’ve also brought in Paul Straney and with his experience and knowledge of the game that’s been rubbing off on the players also.
“We’ve been looking more organised and harder to break down.
“The club has been really down for two or three years now and we want to go in there and stabilise it and put our own mark on it.
“We’re working hard on organisation, discipline and shape of the team and the wins are starting to come now and I don’t think we’ll be too far away in what we are trying to achieve.”
So far this season Kilmore have been hard to pin down, winning 2-1 at Newcastle one week, and then losing 5-3 at home to the same opponents the following week. Then on Saturday, seven days after their worst performance of the season in a 5-0 loss at Dunmurry Rec, they strolled to a comfortable 2-0 win over Comber Rec.
But for Young, their enigmatic form has a rather simple explanation.
“Whenever we have had a full squad together we have won,” he said.
Young took over at Kilmore on the eve of the new season, so preparations were hardly ideal when the new campaign kicked off in early August.
But since then he has managed to add significantly to the squad and feels the turnouts at training are an indication of how the mood is changing at the club. “The numbers at training were not good but that’s all changed now and at its maximum, between the firsts and seconds, we have had 42 at training,” explained the Kilmore chief, who spent six years at the club learning his trade as a midfielder.
“We have a locally-based core of players and that is mine and the committee’s intention.
“We want to work with local guys who want to play with Kilmore.
“Before we had a lot of outsiders at the club, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but we want to have a community spirit here.
“All our players come from within a five-mile radius of Crossgar and a lot of them have had a connection with Kilmore in the past.”