Bangor may sit bottom of the top-flight table heading into a visit by defending league champions Larne but boss Lee Feeney is looking up beyond the Premiership position.

Despite six points from 12 league games across Bangor’s second season back in the first tier, Feeney is drawing confidence from the internal self-belief irrespective of external setbacks.

"Listen, we're alright...our mindset, our belief,” said Feeney. "We're not in a good place in the league, obviously, but for me it's a false position.

"We've been punished for some silly mistakes we've made.

placeholder image — Bangor manager Lee Feeney. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

"That's on us.

"Every game we've played we've been really, really competitive...we’re coming away every time with a hard luck story.

"I just feel that we're only a heartbeat away before it all changes.

"We believe we can get three points against Larne...genuinely because of the way we're playing and the way the players feel about it.

"I've never been at the bottom of the league before anywhere I've been.

"But I can say that I've never seen a greater mentality in players as the one that we have in our changing room.

"I know they're bottom of the league and they know they're bottom of the league but they could be sitting feeling sorry for themselves and wondering how are we going to get out of this.

"But when I speak to them and when I see them they know that they're going to crawl themselves back out of this.

"They have that belief.

"Sometimes the first thing you have to do is try and keep them positive and try and get them motivated for the next game.

"But they're doing that themselves.

"And we understand we don't get anything handed to us.

"We have to be better as well in both boxes and that's all it's down to...just small details.”

Feeney finished positive off a midweek BetMcLean Cup loss which offered a platform to players in search of more minutes.

"They're smart...we're trying to educate the players as much as possible on this journey and let them know that it's about a squad,” said Feeney. "Sometimes it's horses for courses as well...you're playing a certain team, you want a certain type of player.

"But they understand that...I'll always explain the decisions why I pick players but the other side of it is they have to give me a reason to pick them and they've certainly done that on Tuesday night.

"I'm really, really delighted...some of them haven't got the game time they probably wanted but I came away from that really, really happy with the performance and the way we played ourselves and, most importantly, with the response from the players who haven't been playing much.

"We were superb...we missed a few really good opportunities.

"We had the luxury to rotate, seven changes to the starting 11...we were so competitive, we have decent depth.

"I've got a nice headache trying to pick a team for the Larne game.”