Paul Owens desire to 'batter belief' into Limavady United for Premiership return
Limavady United manager Paul Owens admits “the biggest thing I'm trying to batter into the side is belief” after guiding the Roesiders back to the Premiership – and has declared “I've no interest in watching my side just panic”.
The Co Londonderry club’s first match back in Northern Ireland’s top-flight for nearly 20 years ended in a 2-0 defeat to Glentoran last weekend.
Limavady were able to keep their full-time opponents at bay for an hour before a quickfire double dashed hopes of points.
Owens has masterminded Limavady’s surge up the Irish League pyramid, taking over at The Showgrounds with the club sitting in the Premier Intermediate League.
Within the space of 24 months, Limavady had collected two league titles and booked a top-flight return, but the challenge is to now compete with Northern Ireland’s elite on a weekly basis.
Owens’ side have enjoyed success in cup competitions, beating Larne and Linfield, who were both Premiership champions, in consecutive Irish Cup runs.
Former Coleraine assistant Owens isn’t content with simply taking part this season – he’s determined to see his side play the style of football that helped them get to this stage.
"We defended our box really well (against Glentoran) yes, but you don't want to defend your box as often as we did,” said Owens ahead of this weekend’s visit of Carrick Rangers. "I just would have liked us to have a wee bit more courage – the biggest thing I'm trying to batter into the side is belief.
"We came out of the Championship with record points and the last three years, the teams that came up have done really well.
"There has to be a belief here that we can't just come to these occasions and freeze and not take responsibility and not want the ball.
"I want my team to play a certain way and if it's good enough to stay in this league, it will be, but I've no interest in watching my side just panic and kick a ball away, which we probably did in the first half.
"We had a tough pre-season. I told the players, ‘it's not going to be like that every week, it's not the full-time teams every week’.
"We look forward to getting into the other batch of teams and hopefully have a little bit more territory, a little bit more ball, and show the qualities that we have going forward.”