BARN’S BACK DOOR BLOWN WIDE OPEN

United’s Donald admits his defence couldn’t cope with class of Dundela

STEPHEN DONALD admits Barn were outclassed on Saturday as Dundela ran riot in the Intermediate Cup.

The Duns hammered the Haslett Park outfit in a pre-season friendly a few months back, and repeated the feat in a 7-0 demolition job at Wilgar at the weekend.

Although they haven’t lifted the cup since 2001, the East Belfast men are second only to Linfield Swifts in the list of all-time winners of the competition with 10.

And former Islandmagee chief Donald, back in the Amateur League with Barn after a one-year break from management, reckons they’ll be hard to stop once again this year.

“Dundela were the last team we wanted, they are a good side,” said Donald.

“They move the ball very quick and they were just far too good for us.

“We had three missing and our goalkeeper was injured but even at that they were too strong for us.

“It makes you wonder is it worth entering these competitions because when you come up against the like of that, it’s men against boys basically. We battled hard and we tried to stop them playing but they have some good players and I think they will be one of the favourites to win it. They are very, very strong.”

Thankfully for Donald, Barn’s season will not be defined by their performances in the Intermediate Cup, with their league campaign allimportant as they look to set up camp at the top end of the table.

They have made a bright start on that front, with 14 points from a possible 24 lifting them up into third place.

However, Donald fears the loss of Andy Kane to East Belfast last week – the striker had netted 16 times already this season before making the switch to the Premier Division league leaders – and that of defender Aaron Anderson, who is no longer at the club, may have scuppered their chances of challenging.

“We are trying to consolidate our league position because we lost a couple of big players there last week,” explained the Barn chief.

“If those two players had have stayed, we would have been right up there so losing them has hurt us. We’ll maybe not do it (promotion) this season but when I get some more players in, we’ll definitely be pushing next season.”

That said Donald, right, feels his club could be even better off than third had they not squandered vital points in their two league games against Ballynahinch

United.

“The two matches against Ballynahinch, we should have won the both of them,” lamented the Barn boss.

“They ended up beating us down there with an own goal and a penalty.

“I don’t think they had another shot the whole match, we just couldn’t score.

“And then at home, we drew with them 2-2 but we battered them the whole match but again we couldn’t score.”