Attacking duo looking sharper – OK

ORAN Kearney is hoping that the post-split schedule will help his several players get up to speed ahead of the end-of-season European play-off matches…

The Stripes are on the road tomorrow afternoon as they face Glentoran and Kearney will have Dean Jarvis back at his disposal after the full-back completed a two-match suspension.

Despite only picking up one point from their three post-split fixtures to date, Kearney earmarked how Andy Scott and Conor McKendry are looking sharper with every passing minute.

“These four or five games are tough but we keep saying that you want to go into the European Play-Off with a performance and our performance levels against Linfield were good,” he said.

“We were obviously missing a few players here and there but you’re also trying to get players caught up like Andy Scott who’s missed a lot of football this season and Conor McKendry who’s been out injured for quite a period of time.

“We’ve a few on the treatment table and a few serving suspension so you’re trying to get all that sorted heading into the Play-Off.

“Glentoran will be a tough one and they had a good win against Cliftonville.

“Ideally, we’ll have a few extra bodies back and put in another good performance.”

The Bannsiders lost out late to Linfield last weekend and Kearney believes his side was unfortunate to not at least show a point for their efforts.

“On the way the game had gone and all aspects of the performance, I thought we had a real go particularly in the second-half,” he added.

“It was just unfortunate that we couldn’t get the breakthrough or the goal that we felt we deserved.

“The second-half against Crusaders wasn’t near the levels we needed to be.

“To be fair, I thought it was a good response from the players who went out there.”