After an extremely poor result at the weekend I decided to get my mind off the pressure for points by visiting Belfast Christmas markets and living a normal life for a day. It was a true winter wonderland, I enjoyed the people of Belfast and their joyful holiday spirit as well as seeing some interesting European things on offer at the local stores.
On the pitch I feel our consistency as a team has let us down so far this season which is frustrating for us as players, staff and fans. We find ourselves going head to head with the best in the league for a straight month only to let our form slip when it really matters. I don’t want to mention decisions that have gone against us in key moments because this is a part of football and if we bury our chances and do our job efficiently at the back then those poor decisions against us don’t matter.
Mathew Tipton has organised that we come in on evenings and analyse our shape and defensive mistakes that cost us against Dunngannon Swifts in depth, we are building towards becoming a more solid unit and ultimately eliminating easy goal opportunities that we have gifted our opponents thus far.
Leading up to the Larne game this weekend we expect a tough game but I personally am not scared of any team in this league, we have the players that can go out there and get a result against them especially at home with our supporters behind us.
Once again I have trained every day like I always do because as a goalkeeper you cannot afford to take days off, you always have to stay sharp and make sure you regularly work on your reflexes and technique. Credit to my goalkeeper coach Simon Hunter who always makes time for me to do extra training sessions whenever I ask him as I don’t have a job outside of football, I am firmly focused on Portadown FC and keeping this team in the Premiership.
Everybody in the club is keen to bounce back after our performance against Dunngannon Swifts, we are fired up and ready to get a result.
Jethren