DORAN IS OUT FOR REVENGE

Goal ace has Tullycarnet in his sights

MICHAEL DORAN has warned Tullycarnet they’ll be facing a fired-up Abbey Villa with a point to prove when they renew rivalries in the Irish Cup this Saturday.

The East Belfast men came out on top when the two teams locked horns a few weeks ago, emerging from a nine-goal thriller to progress into the quarter-finals of the Border Cup.

Doran agrees that to score so heavily at home and still fall short is criminal in football, and admits he and his teammates are still livid that they allowed a similar scenario to unfold in Saturday’s draw with Malachians, when they scored five this time at Adams Park but still couldn’t secure the result.

“We were 3-1 up and absolutely cruising again, but we had a crazy 10 minutes and we ended up 4-3 down before we knew it and then we got ourselves into a bit of a dogfight,” explained Doran.

“It’s happened a few times this season but Saturday was a step too far.

“It’s something we are going to have to cut out of our game if we are to get where we aspire to be this season.”

With that in mind, Doran reckons this weekend’s clash with Tullycarnet is the perfect fixture to channel their frustrations.

“It’s probably the draw we wanted,” said the 27-year-old striker.

“They beat us earlier in the season at Adams Park and again, to score four goals at home and not win was a real downer at the time.

“There’s no better game for us this weekend, especially after Saturday. Saturday felt like a defeat more than coming away with a point. It’s a real good fixture to look forward to.

“We go up not for revenge, I wouldn’t call it revenge, but we have it in the back of our minds what they done to us at Adams Park.

“But I’m looking forward to it, it should be a good game like it was before. It was a topsy-turvy game last time, no one really dominated, though I remember Tucker Gorman scored a great goal from about 25 yards.

“They are a good side but we’re going there hoping to get into the next round of the cup and hopefully get a big draw.”

The frustration of Saturday aside, it’s been a fine start to new manager Jonathan Busby’s reign, with Abbey Villa’s last league defeat coming way back on the opening day of the season.

Personally, Doran considers his club dark horses for promotion, so long as they stamp out the silly mistakes and keep believing in themselves.

“Things around the club are really positive, we’ve done a lot of work to the playing surface over the summer and we’ve only lost one game in the league, and I think we’ve only lost three overall from the start of the season,” he said.

“Buzz [Busby] and Colin Strain have come in and have really changed the whole set-up of the place. They’ve made it a hell of a lot more professional, the way things have been done, and they’ve brought an Irish League legend, Rory Hamill, in for training.

“They’ve changed everything so we just need to have belief if we want to move on. The quality is there, the squad is there, we’ve added a couple from the start of the season, the young lad Curtis Giltrap has come in there from the Amateurs, Stewarty Leitch has come in from Comber and had a great debut on Saturday.

“So we just need to show a bit of belief in ourselves because we are at the right end of the table, we’re sitting fifth or sixth and there’s no reason why we can’t go on a run and challenge at the top end of the league.”

Doran grabbed two on Saturday, taking his tally for the campaign to 13, just two short of his total for the whole of last season.

And the former Portaferry and Glentoran youth team player admits he’s delighted with his form as he credited Busby with coaxing the best out of him.

“On a personal level, it’s been great,” said Doran. “Buzz has pretty much filled me with confidence. He just lets me go out and show what I can do and I’ve managed to get myself a lot fitter than I was last year, and obviously with fitness the goals come, but it comes a lot from the guys around me too.”