'It's a collective effort and we were off it' - Stephen McDonnell reflects on 'extremely frustrating' Premiership opener for Glenavon
Stephen McDonnell admits his Glenavon side “were off it” after starting their Premiership campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Carrick Rangers.
The Lurgan Blues fell behind early on through Curtis Allen’s header before Nedas Maciulaitis doubled Carrick’s advantage prior to the break as Stuart King’s men began the new season with three points.
Taylor’s Avenue is a venue that tends to treat Glenavon well historically – they’d only lost in one of their previous 18 trips to the County Antrim ground prior to this weekend – but McDonnell felt they came up second best in the physical battle.
"It was extremely frustrating,” he told the club’s media channel. “We didn't really get going today...we were probably outbattled for large parts physically, which is disappointing because we prepared for what we felt Carrick would bring.
"I'm disappointed with our performance...on the ball our adaptability wasn't there to recognise scenarios of the game, particularly in the first-half, and in the second-half we tried to stretch them but we wanted more variation in our play and were probably too direct at times. I need to reflect on preparations this week and make sure I was right with my message and then from there reflect on the game.
"It would be harsh to point out anybody here. Everything we do is as a team and collectively we weren't at it and that's just the message really. It's a collective effort and we were off it today."
When asked if he had any problems with the pitch, McDonnell replied: "No issues with the pitch. That's the decision of the home team and we won't use that as an excuse. We were well capable of moving the balls at times and didn't make the right decisions. No excuses on that front."
McDonnell handed three summer signings their debuts – Rhys Marshall, Davy McDaid and Keith Ward – while James Carroll and Michael O’Connor were introduced off the bench.
Glenavon face a tough opening month of fixtures at the start of this Irish League season with home matches against Cliftonville and Linfield followed by trips to Coleraine and Ballymena United.
"They are all difficult in this league – there are never any easy games,” added McDonnell. “If you think there are going to be easy games in the top-flight you’re mad.
“We’ll spend a bit of time licking our wounds, we’ll reflect on our week just gone and come in positively like we do every week to try and educate the players around areas where we feel we can expose Cliftonville.
"How we’ll we prepare won’t change. We always reflect and see if there’s anything we missed, but off first thinking we covered a lot of what happened here today.”