WHAT THE MANAGER SAID: Irish League's form team fall short as promotion-chasing 'enigma' Dollingstown lose lead

Daniel Gordon put the Dollybirds ahead before Banbridge regrouped across the second half to score off Michael McCavitt’s penalty kick and a Declan Carville finish.

As a result, Dollingstown now trail Warrenpoint Town by three points – plus the third tier’s top team enjoying a game in hand – with Rathfriland Rangers then four back on second.

Here’s the verdict of Dollingstown boss Stephen Uprichard following defeat for the side with the best five-game points return across all three Irish League divisions before Saturday:

OVERALL PERFORMANCE…

"The first half was even enough, we probably just edged it.

"The second half we were well second-best, Banbridge definitely the better side and I don't think we had a shot...maybe five minutes to go.

"We're disappointed in our own performance...we'd to change our team from the previous week but we've a big squad.

"Banbridge have been on a good run but we definitely under-performed to our expectations.

"It was a good deep ball into the box, good knockdown and good third-man run (Gordon’s goal).

"That was probably the way to play conditions...Banbridge played it better than we did.

"We knew what we were in for the second half, they threw it up to Carville and got runners off him.

"I thought the penalty was a bit dodgy but bottom line is we weren't good enough, especially in the second half.

"We knew today was going to be difficult but conditions were the same for both.

"On the bench we had lads sick or not having played many minutes...we went for it after the second goal but hadn't long enough left to influence with shape, just went everybody up front and had a rattle but it didn't work out and they defended really well."

PROMOTION RACE...

"It's a bad result and disappointing but there will certainly be twists and turns.

"It's so tight, with a lot of good sides below us.

"Anybody can beat anybody in this division and if not on it then you're getting beat.

"I think we're probably in a position that has surprised ourselves, with all due respect.

"If you'd talked to other teams I don't think anyone would've said Dollingstown would be in this position with five games to go.

"It's nice to be in this position and we'd rather be there than not (but) we know we've a lot of work to do.

"As far as we're concerned we're probably in a position we maybe didn't expect to be in.

"But they (the players) have got themselves there and earned the right to be there.

"There's no pressure but there is pressure.

"Can they handle it? It's over to them.”

REACTION… "Our goal now until the end of the season is to try and win as many games as possible.

"We've five difficult games and we've got to just look at Distillery next then try to get back on the winning trail.

"That's happened to us twice this season, we played Warrenpoint at home and were excellent.

"We won 3-0 then the next week went to Knockbreda and it was the worst 45 minutes of our season.

"Last week we were decent against Ballymacash, today we were awful.

"We're an enigma.

"If you take today's performance, we need to majorly step up if we're going to do anything in the run-in.

"We've got to dust ourselves down, today is over, we can't change it now.

"We've got to look forward to next week and try to get a team on the pitch that's going to give Distillery a game."