Declan Devine feels Glentoran 'really close to being a really good side' as he calls for clinical edge
Declan Devine feels Glentoran are “really close to being a really good side” – but called for a greater clinical edge in front of goal after their 1-0 Premiership defeat to Larne.
The Glens are now winless across their last five league matches following Friday’s loss which came courtesy of a late Benji Magee strike.
Devine’s men remain in fourth, 11 points behind leading duo Coleraine and Larne – they’ve three games in hand on the Bannsiders and played one fewer than the latter.
While Coleraine have scored a league-high 42 goals and Larne have netted 31, Glentoran have struck 24 times in their 17 matches, and Devine feels a failure to take opportunities is costing his side dearly.
"We have to look at ourselves in terms of not taking opportunities,” he told BBC Sport NI. “We've dominated the game against a good side away from home at a difficult venue.
"We've given up one opportunit y in the game and we've got punished, yet we've created four or five good chances and not taken them.
"It's a very difficult time for us at the moment because our performances haven't been bad in recent games but our points tally has been poor. There's no shying away from that.
"You can have all the domination that you want but at the end of the day it comes down to having three points in the bag. You've got to put that ball in the back of the net."
Glentoran are in the midst of a difficult league schedule with defeat to Larne now followed up by a home clash against Coleraine and their Boxing Day trip to rivals Linfield.
Devine insists his side hold no fear in taking on their full-time foes across consecutive matches, but admits they can’t full further behind as they look to compete for title honours
"I know we're really close to being a really good side, I think we'll still be in the mix, and we don't fear anyone in the league, but we've got to tidy up and make sure we are more ruthless, have more cohesion about us in terms of digging out a clean sheet,” he added. "We can't fall further behind [the leaders].
"We've gone behind in each of the last five games so when you give away that first goal it's extremely hard to come away with three points.
"We wanted to send our supporters home happy [against Larne] as they were magnificent for us. The players are distraught because it was a game we didn't deserve to lose."