Irish League striker praises manager impact after instilling confidence during 'make or break' season
In-form Crusaders striker Kieran Offord praised the impact that Declan Caddell has had on his career during what he felt was a “make or break” season.
Offord arrived at Seaview on loan from Scottish Premiership outfit St Mirren during the summer and immediately hit the ground running, scoring on league debut against Glentoran, who the Crues will host on Friday evening.
The 20-year-old has gone on to register eight goals in 17 Premiership appearances, playing virtually every minute as an entrusted member of Caddell’s squad, and netted his first senior hat-trick during their extra-time BetMcLean Cup quarter-final success over Dungannon Swifts earlier this month.
A temporary move to Belfast marks the sixth loan spell of Offord’s career with the Scottish youth international spending last season at both Edinburgh City and Stirling Albion, scoring five times across 38 matches for the League One pair.
Linking up with Caddell has helped instil a newfound confidence in Offord and he’s reaping the rewards having netted five times in his last three matches heading into Friday’s showdown.
"This is the most confident I've been,” he said. "I was coming off a poor season on a personal note last season with both loans not working out.
"I thought this was almost make or break for me and my confidence was at a real low and now it's probably at the highest it's been, so it's really good.
"He (Caddell) has been massive for me. In pre-season I wasn't exactly doing great but the gaffer kept faith in me and he instilled belief in me that I'm a good player and that I'm going to score goals.
"He said I would get chances and he put faith in me to play me near enough every game and has given me the most minutes I've had in my career so far."
Offord, who made his Scottish Premiership debut against Celtic in December 2021 before facing Rangers a matter of days later, is the latest St Mirren youngster to gain crucial experience in Northern Ireland.
Fraser Taylor was Ballymena United’s standout star last term as they maintained top-flight status before returning to Paisley while Luke Kenny was on loan at Cliftonville, coming on at half-time in their memorable Irish Cup final victory over Linfield.
"I spoke to Fraser quite a lot because he's probably my closest mate in football back home,” added Offord. "When he was on loan last season I was speaking to him every week asking him how his games were going and how much he was enjoying it.
"He really enjoyed his time over here. It was difficult for him because Ballymena were struggling and obviously this year they aren't.
"He told me it's a tough, physical league but thought I'd do well in it because of my pace and attributes. I still talk to him a lot about it now."
With only nine points separating second-placed Cliftonville and Larne in ninth, the ability to find consistency could help send a number of teams into a more positive position and Crusaders are looking to benefit.
"You can see from the league table that it's really tight,” said Offord. "There's not a lot of points separating a lot of teams and we have a couple of games in hand.
"If you win those and can put a couple of wins together then you could be right up there but you just have to look at Friday night and see where that takes us."