FRIARS WANTS UNITED

LIMAVADY UNITED boss Sean Friars has challenged his side to build on their weekend comeback against Portadown to spark a run of form.

The Roesiders battled back from two goals down to rescue a point against the promotion hopefuls on Saturday, but they remain secondfrom-bottom in the Championship.

However, December has five games in store for the North-west side with three of those matches at the Limavady Showgrounds against the teams immediately surrounding them in the standings.

“I’m telling my players to look at Loughgall, who are unbeaten in nine games,” Friars told Match On

Tuesday.

“They beat us 2-1 in our away game and we were not at the races that day, then held them 1-1 earlier this month and I think we should have won that game – there is not a lot between us but they are sitting third in the league.

“You can go on a run if you get one or two results back-to-back, its about putting points on the board and when you do that then you start believing in yourselves more.

“I don’t buy too much into the argument that home games give you an advantage in this league, it’s 11 players against 11 and the players can go out and perform.

“I’m not concerned about individual games because we don’t fear any opponent home or away, we know that if we show up and show our potential we will be in good stead.” After taking points off Portadown, Dundela, Loughgall and Ballyclare in recent weeks, Friars is confident their winless run will soon come to an end.

“I’m so proud of my players and the resilience they showed on Saturday,” the former Derry City midfielder (right) continued.

“We have gone behind in almost every game this season and we are used to battling our way back into the games, but the only disappointing thing is not getting the winner.

“On Saturday we were excellent after going two goals down, but we know that in time that will come for us because we are a very young team who are growing.

“Portadown were excellent for the first hour of Saturday’s game and Matthew Tipton admitted to me after the game he thought it was the best they had played this season.

“We are disappointed that we aren’t starting games faster but we know we are capable of playing really good stuff and that is starting to show itself more frequently.

“If you can come from two goals down against a team of Portadown’s quality then it shows that not only do you have quality but you have character too.

“The manner in which we did it was impressive too because our first goal had a build-up of 15 passes, which shows that what we are working on in training is paying off in key moments.”

A key aspect of the Roesiders’ season thus far has been the number of draws (six, more than any other