Loughgall suffered their first defeat of the new Premiership campaign at Windsor Park on Saturday afternoon as Linfield impressed in a 5-1 triumph. Here’s what Villagers boss Dean Smith had to say after the match:

On the match

"It’s a game you want to draw a line under and move on quickly. It was a tough day at the office and a frustrating one. We come to places like this and we need a bit of help at times and the officials didn’t really give us a helping hand.”

On the decisions he was frustrated at

placeholder image — Loughgall manager Dean Smith. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

"From my view the ball does hit his hand (for Linfield’s opening goal, Chris McKee penalty) but it’s in a natural position and the second one isn’t a corner, which leads to the goal.

"That’s a really frustrating one because the referee has a really good view of it and three assistant referees standing there that can help him. They haven’t assisted the referee which is frustrating.

"It probably isn’t going to change the destination of the three points but you’re up against it when you’re not getting those decisions.”

On it being hard to recover from first-half performance

"Yeah it is and it’s probably a bit of us as well – we need to cope with set-pieces. Three of the first four goals come from set-pieces so we’re frustrated with that and know we can do better.

"I thought we didn’t get into the game at all in the first 15 minutes and give the ball away a lot, which is very unlike us. We’re disappointed.”

On if it’s intimidating for players coming to a place like Windsor Park

"It shouldn’t be – they are Premiership footballers. I said before the game to not let the badge or stadium beat you and probably in the first-half it did.

"I’m not massively disappointed with our performance in the second-half but certainly disappointed with the first."

On Ryan Waide taking his goal well

"Yeah, it was super. It’s a great finish that ended a great move from back to front.”

On Ben Harvey making his first start and importance of bringing through young players

"Ben is a player we’ve had right through from U16s, U18s and U20s, and he’s someone we think a lot of and think he has a great future.

"There’s no better place to make your first start than at Windsor Park and I thought he did really well on the ball today.”

On if Loughgall are hoping to do transfer business after losing Benji Magee

"We’re probably like every other club in that we’re looking to strengthen in all areas. If there’s something that comes up which we think adds quality to us and fits into what we’ve already got, we’ll certainly try to bring them in.”

On injury update on Nathaniel Ferris

"Nathaniel has a slight hamstring injury. We’ll assess it on Monday, but he doesn’t think it’s too bad at the minute.”

On speculation over David Healy’s future and if he’d back him to succeed across the water

"I think he would do very similarly to here (achieve success). David is his own man and if he decides to go it would be a big loss for the Irish League, but whoever gets him is getting a top quality manager.

"I think sometimes the Irish League is looked down on and you just have to see the amount of players that are moving across now on a yearly basis – young players as well as established Irish League players are now moving across.

"How many teams are now coming into this market to look at players? It shows we have quality.”