Institute manager claims clubs have 'lacked class' in their pursuit of striker Joe McCready

The 29-year-old, who’s a free agent in the summer, is believed to have attracted the attention of Finn Harps, Coleraine and Cliftonville to name but three clubs, but Connor insists no club apart from Ballymena United have contacted ’Stute.

“Right now Joe McCready is a contracted player with Institute football club,” he insisted.

“He’s a very, very good player, he’s a very important player in my long-term plans for this football club.

“Myself and the chairman (Bill Anderson) have spoken to him at length about extending his contract, which will be a very lengthy contract and at this moment in time we have not been approached officially by any club regarding Joe McCready.

“The only club that have actually asked us was Ballymena United and once I told him no and because David Jeffrey is a class manager and is a very professional gentleman, they backed off.

“All this other stuff as far as I’m concerned is rumour and innuendo and if it’s not rumour and innuendo then someone at some football clubs are breaking very, very, clear rules.”

Connor has praised David Jeffrey and the Braidmen but feels ‘there’s a lots of people lacking class in football’.

“So let me clarify, Joe McCready is under contract, we have not been contacted by any football club other than Ballymena United, who acted ultimately professionally with their deals with this football club,” he added.

“At the end of the season that’s a different situation and no club can speak to him now, they need permission first.

“The rules are very clear, he can’t speak to anybody, they need permission and we haven’t been asked apart from Ballymena United.

“As I said David Jeffrey has shown his professionalism and his class and if I was a player that’s the type of people I would want to go to. People who are professional, with a bit of class and there’s lots of people lacking class in football.”

Connor was talking after his side’s defeat to Danske Bank Premiership leaders Glentoran and he felt the two goals they conceded were preventable.

“I’m disappointed with the result but the level of performance was quite good. Both of the goals were a bit unfortunate in a sense,” he added.

“For the first, if Ryan Morrow doesn’t fall in the build-up, I don’t think they’d score and then for the second the free kick has bounced just before the keeper and they reacted quicker.

“For them to be sitting top of the table and for us to be where we are, the gulf wasn’t massive. If we can perform like that against the teams in and around us, then we’ll be fine.

“Sometimes when we play the teams around us, we don’t perform like that, so we just need to keep our cool.

“At 2-0 it’s a difficult game. Their game management was very good in the second half.

“We huffed and puffed without really creating as much as we did in the first half when we had two or three really good chances. The difference was that when they got their chances, they were clinical.”