Dean Smith wants to see return of ‘dogged’ Loughgall side

Smith and his newly-promoted players have embraced life on the big stage with a return of 18 points from the first 14 games of the Sports Direct Premiership.

It is a tally which has attracted praise for a side many expected to struggle given the shortage of senior experience and limited budget.

However, although happy to pick out the positives, Smith rejects any notion of his side at the top table simply “to sightsee”.

Speaking in the aftermath of a 5-1 loss to Linfield last Saturday at Windsor Park, Smith pointed out any progress has been built on forward-thinking characteristics and reaffirmed the importance of a return to those values to ensure continued development.​

“If you'd asked me at the start of the year we'd be delighted (with the start) but now we are there we're disappointed with our last few performances,” he said. “Newry (3-1 win) maybe papered over a few cracks but before that we had Glentoran (6-0 loss) and Carrick (4-3 loss) which, from our point of view, were poor performances.

“They were nothing like the performances at the start of the year.

“We've got to get that back again, that grit back, the other side of the game when we don't have possession that we're hard to break down, dogged and putting bodies on the line.

"We're built a certain way and we try to play a certain brand of football.

“It doesn't always work but we don't want to deviate too much away from that.

“We want to be better defensively but we always want to make sure we try and pass the ball and control certain parts of the game.

“The defensive side of the game was poor (v Linfield).”

Now, having played league leaders Linfield, Smith turns his focus to a Ballymena side eight points below Loughgall in the table.

Reflecting on a perceived contrast between the challenges, Smith said: "You're coming to Linfield...we're in the same league, we're not coming down to sightsee, we're in to win a game of football.

“So Ballymena will be approached in the same manner.”