WHAT THE MANAGER SAID: Loughgall's Dean Smith clear 'we've got to get rid of it pretty quickly' after five-goal setback
Loughgall lost out to Cliftonville by 5-1 at Lakeview Park on Saturday in the Sports Direct Premiership.
Here’s the verdict of Loughgall boss Dean Smith:
PERFORMANCE...
"For 90 minutes we were, by far, the second-best team on the pitch, which we weren't about last year.
"For some reason it has crept in and we've got to get rid of it pretty quickly.
"We're really disappointed with the performance...another flat performance, conceding poor goals.
"The second goal is a 70-yard ball we get caught out with and they score from it.
"The third is a corner...another set-piece we've conceded.
"We can do better with the goals we've conceded and it's three in eight minutes so the game's over after 25 minutes.
He added: "To be honest, I thought today we had a really good opportunity.
"Cliftonville have had a real turnover of players in the off-season and probably haven't got the flow of last year.
"Certainly today we helped them find it again.
"You look at the difference and it's in the final third...they were very clinical and took the opportunity but we didn't.
FUTURE...
"We spoke inside about it and I don't like harping back but last season we were really, really competitive.
"We made teams work for every single thing that we got but at the minute we're too easy to play against.
"We got a good performance last week (2-2 draw v Glenavon) when I think we did enough to get three points.
"It's a really, really poor performance (v Cliftonville) and very unlike us.
"But it doesn't stop you having faith in the players we've got.
"We've got to be realistic and say we were really poor today - but we've still got a group of players mostly there from last year when we were able to put in performance after performance.
"We're maybe low in confidence at the minute but the group of players in there I trust wholly.
"We know that we can be better, it would be different if I was standing here saying this is the best we've got and we've been second-best all over.
"We know we can do much better and have done much better.
"So it's about reminding the players."