ALL THE YOUNG GOODS Kilmore boss has belief in quality of his squad

JOHN YOUNG has thrown the gauntlet down to Kilmore Rec, telling his players they can achieve whatever they want this season.

It’s been a largely frustrating start to the new campaign for the Robert Adams Park outfit, who claimed three wins from their first five league outings, only to see one of those – a 3-0 rout of Newcastle – chalked off after an oversight with an ineligible player.

Taken alongside an opening day loss to Killyleagh when leading 1-0 in the 89th minute, Young (right) admits a decent start could so easily have been a brilliant one.

Admittedly, however, his team were well below par at the weekend as they went down 4-2 to Newcastle at Shimna – though the Kilmore chief insists a decimated squad goes some way to explaining their listless performance.

Nevertheless, after swelling the ranks over the summer with the likes of exdrumaness Mills trio Anton Mcgrattan, Mark Mcmahon and James Mcgivern, Pearse Mccarthy and Decky Allister from Newcastle, Conall Young from Glenavon, and the returning Jonny Cheevers and Ryan Slavin, Young was in bullish form as he surveyed his team’s prospects.

“We were down 12 players there on Saturday so the whole quality of the team was ripped out,” explained Young, who is soon to welcome former Newcastle boss Ciaran Brannigan alongside him in the dugout.

“And that’s being honest, Newcastle were better than us on the day but we were rubbish. It’s different if you have three, four or five out, we can cope with that, but to take 12 out of your team, it’s a tough ask.

“The Gaelic is hampering us at the minute but if we can just stay in it until everyone is back, we have a very, very strong squad.

“Most of the players we wanted to keep have all remained, and we’ve added some real quality, plus we still have some more in the pipeline that we are trying to get.

“As for this season, we just want to finish as high up the table as we can. The players who are there can finish as high as they want, they played Killyleagh off the park for 85 minutes, we should have been three or four up, and they are the best team in the league.

“We were 1-0 up and gave away two goals in the last two minutes, a penalty and a good strike from Lee Morrison, but the game should have been dead and buried. Any team we have played at full strength, we have blew out of the water, and we will continue to do that, but again we are waiting to get back to that point with so many players out.”

This weekend, Kilmore are in Irish Cup action as they welcome Sport & Leisure Swifts to Crossgar.

It gives Young another week to get his squad back for when the league returns the following Saturday – not that he has any intentions of rolling over for the visitors from West Belfast. “Our ambition on Saturday would be to win the game but we don’t know yet who we are going to have available,” added Young.

“I know I definitely have three or four out, but there’s a Gaelic game on Friday so some of those boys might be available on Saturday.

“We’re unbeaten at home so we want to keep that going and if we have a full strength team, we don’t fear anybody at home.”