Bangor star Lewis Francis wants to play his part in helping improve the Seasiders’ defensive record and collect more clean sheets.

The Co Down club currently sit eighth in the Premiership and are enjoying a solid return to life in Northern Ireland’s top-flight.

Lee Feeney’s men have conceded 31 goals in their 21 matches so far, which is less than the likes of Portadown (39) and Dungannon Swifts (32) who sit above them, but they’ve registered just one clean sheet this term – a 3-0 win over basement club Glenavon in October.

That is the Premiership’s joint-lowest return alongside the Lurgan Blues – their sole shut-out came in Michael O’Connor’s first game in charge against Carrick Rangers – while Crusaders have kept two and Portadown and Carrick four apiece.

placeholder image — Bangor's Lewis Francis in action against Portadown's Eamon Fyfe. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

Francis has started in six of Bangor’s last seven league matches and racked up 12 appearances since returning to Clandeboye Park, where he spent the 2023/24 season on loan from Dungannon Swifts, during the summer after a spell at Loughgall.

He’s benefitting from playing alongside the likes of experienced Irish League defender Mark Haughey and Francis’ main aim is racking up clean sheets as Bangor look to climb the table once again.

“Lee talks about us being a machine – he builds our confidence up and he says we’re one of the best teams in the league without the ball,” he told the club’s website. “I think we are, but we’re just not getting clean sheets.

"I think that’s something that we’re definitely going to have to try and instil in our game.

“Just getting that ruthlessness, both in our box and in the other box, starting to get those clean sheets, those shut-outs because we’re dying at the back to get them.

“We’re defending well the majority of the time, but we’re dying to just get that clean sheet.

“We’re gutted because we battled so hard (against Dungannon) and the effort levels are so high, just the last wee bit of quality wasn’t there.”

Bangor are hoping to bounce back from their narrow 1-0 Boxing Day defeat to Dungannon Swifts when Ballymena United visit on Tuesday.

The Sky Blues handed Bangor their biggest defeat of the season to date, winning 4-0 at The Showgrounds in August, while they also ran out 3-2 victors at Clandeboye Park last month thanks to Success Edogun’s late strike.

Across the last 10 matches played by each Premiership team, only Carrick (five) have collected fewer points than Bangor (seven) and Francis is determined to get revenge against Ballymena.

Oran Kearney celebrated his first win in charge on Friday after Daire O’Connor’s brace sealed derby delight against Coleraine.

"We’ll dust ourselves down and we’ve another game (on Tuesday), so we definitely want to go and win that,” added Francis. “We probably need to make up for the last time we played Ballymena with doing so well and pulling ourselves back into the game and then conceding.

“There’s probably a bit there that we want to rectify because it’s so recent as well.”