Fuad Sule insists Glentoran need to become more clinical in front of goal if they want to continue climbing the Premiership table and bounce back from last weekend’s defeat to Dungannon Swifts against Ballymena United this afternoon.

The Glens’ five-game unbeaten run across competitions came to an end at Stangmore Park as John McGovern’s first-half strike ultimately proved the difference, but the visitors let a number of opportunities pass them by in County Tyrone.

It was only their second league defeat of the new campaign, but Sule wants to halt a worrying trend of missed chances with similar woes against Portadown, Cliftonville and Carrick Rangers, even if they did win all three.

"It's not good enough at this level,” he said. "The story of our season is you see against Portadown away we created five or six chances, get saved by the bell.

placeholder image — Glentoran manager Declan Devine shows his frustration during last weekend's Premiership defeat to Dungannon Swifts. PIC: David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press.

"We created four or five chances against Carrick and get saved by the bell again. Cliftonville the first-half we had three or four chances and we're just not putting them away. Eventually you get found out at this level.

"The boys were hurting after Saturday because we should be picking up three points. We'd chances to win two games and the bottom line at this level is if you don't take your chances they'll eventually get one and they took theirs."

Ballymena enter this afternoon’s contest on the back of a shock 1-0 victory over reigning champions Larne at Inver Park where talisman Ben Kennedy brought his league goal tally to five in six matches.

Jim Ervin’s men have now won three games in a row for the first time in eight months and Sule believes this Irish League campaign will be amongst the most competitive.

"It's a tough game and going to be as tough a game as it has been this season and if we don't take chances like what happened against Dungannon then we'll come up short again,” he added. “That's the nature of football.

"I said at the start of the season that this will be the toughest Irish League season I've been involved in and it's proven that's the case. Teams in the bottom-six naturally are beating teams in the top-six and that's the way it is.

"Everybody is capable of beating anybody on their day and the manager said before the Dungannon game that if we're not at the races and don’t take our chances we'll come up short and that's what happened. We got what we deserved.

"One thing I will say about the group is they are an honest bunch of lads and work hard every single day. The buy-in is great but it's about what happens on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon...that's where you make your money.

"There's no point training well throughout the week if you don’t perform well in the match. We need players that are going to perform every single week for this club and be an 8/10 every game."