Captain's Column

Captain’s Column

COLERAINE skipper Stephen O’Donnell believes tomorrow night’s fixture against Crusaders could prove to be a springboard for the rest of the campaign and heaps praise on Ian Parkhill for his contribution against Ballyclare Comrades…

It’s been a busy week at Coleraine, playing in the Cup on Tuesday night and the transfer window closing on Friday. For us it’s been a week of mixed emotions on both fronts and in this piece, I will try and give you an insight as to how we have reacted as players. Starting with Tuesday night against Ballyclare, it was important that we got the win and got into the next round. No matter what it took. There were times where we could have been more effective in possession, tidier throughout the pitch and then more ruthless in the final third. However, when you play a team who are well organised and quite happy to sit behind the ball it can become frustrating and at times difficult to remain patient. For us I think the frustration came through not scoring more goals, but we created enough chances to win two games and that aspect was pleasing. Yes, we need to become more ruthless in front of goal but as I said a few weeks ago, our strikers will start firing again soon and it’s only a matter of time. We’ve seen Jamie score two weeks in a row and with Crues coming up on Monday I wouldn’t be surprised to see him score again.

It was great to see Parky score again on Tuesday night. It showed the value of having quality players who can come off the bench and change a game, something I felt we lacked on Friday against Stute, having had Josh and Burnsy out injured. Parky, as you will all know, has the ability to turn defenders inside out and the ability to score wonderful goals like he did on Tuesday. The challenge for him this season is to become more consistent. He won’t mind me mentioning this, as it’s something we’ve spoken about. But in training, Parky is on another level. He scores those goals regularly and is an absolute nightmare to play against. Full of energy and full of tricks. So transferring that onto a match day has to be the main aim for Parky this season. We seen glimpses of it when he plays, and I feel he has the ability to consistently score and assist goals week after week. Hopefully this will be a big year for him.

Moving onto the closing of the transfer window and we as players are always as excited as you to see who the club will sign and who the gaffer is bringing into the changing room. I remember torturing our media man last year when I caught wind of Burnsy signing, as I knew we were getting a fantastic player. The club this week have re-signed Aaron Canning and he will come into a fantastic changing room where the boys will make him feel right at home again. Having been here before, you will all know the quality that Snowy possesses and he is a good addition to an already strong defence. It gives the manager options to make changes and creates competition for places, which will hopefully improve performances and results.

The biggest disappointment of the week, although it’s also the proudest moment of the week is seeing Brad Lyons make the move to Blackburn Rovers FC. You have all had the pleasure of watching Brad come into the first team as young player and develop his game and improve year after year. For me, being able to play with Brad and get to know him over the last year has been a real pleasure. As a player I have seen him get stronger and more powerful as the year went on, whilst also developing himself technically and mentally. He has the ability to run over the top of the opposition with his relentless forward runs and tireless work rate. I have no doubt that he will become a better player with full time football and hopefully forge a career for himself in the professional game. As a person, Brad is a top lad who all the boys love. He is always in the thick of the banter and always has a smile on his face. So for us, we are gutted to lose a player of that quality, but we are proud to see our friend move onwards and upwards. We wish him all the best for the future.

Crusaders away on Monday night. They probably don’t come much bigger than that in our league. It is always a tough game when we play the Crues and I think we performed really well down there on both occasions last season and we go in search of all three points again. They have obviously lost Gavin Whyte, who is a wonderful player and scored a lot of goals for them last season, but they have attacking quality in abundance that we must be wary of. Jordan Owens is always a handful and physically it will a tough but enjoyable night. As centre halves, me and big G love a physical battle, probably more so than a battle against someone like Curtis Allen. Yes it can be exhausting and you might not win every single ball or header, but these challenges are why we play football. This is probably why it takes a certain kind of character to want to play centre half, who else apart from us would enjoy that sort of thing? After that, Paul Heatley has all sorts of goals in him and Jordan Forsythe is good in the air and effective at what he does. They have also added Rory Patterson to their ranks, a player many of you will know well. It will be interesting to see if they opt to play both strikers up top or revert back to their 4-2-3-1 formation of last season.

We are proud to see our friend move onwards and upwards at Blackburn Rovers

There is an added interest in the game on Monday as it is live on Sky. For us this is probably a year over due, but we won’t get into that just now. For many of the boys it may be the first time playing live on Sky, but it shouldn’t make a difference to how we prepare or how we play. I said after Tuesday’s game that this could be the perfect game for us right now. A big game under lights where the intensity increases, and the performance levels also need to increase. Three points on Monday and it could kick us up a gear in terms of performance levels. Thinking back to last season, the noise you created down at Seaview for our post-split game was unbelievable. The atmosphere and the volume made us feel like we were the home team. I think the Crusaders players and supporters were surprised with how lively you were, and it really inspired us to perform well. The goal celebrations are something that will live long in the memory.

Hopefully there will be a big crowd out on Monday and we can recreate that fantastic atmosphere and come away with all three points.

C’mon the Bannsiders!

Stephen O’Donnell