Ballymacash Rangers boss Lee Forsythe insists his players owe the club a “big performance” following Saturday’s Intermediate Cup collapse against East Belfast.
The Lisburn outfit crashed to a 6-0 defeat at Inverary Avenue in a game that had been billed as the tie of the round.
Despite missing several key players, and losing his goalkeeper to injury in the warm-up, Forsythe offered no excuses for the malaise.
And with a Premier Cup final on Friday night, the determined ‘Cash boss has demanded a big response from his wounded troops.
He told Match on Tuesday: "Anything that could have gone wrong went wrong. We have to take it on the chin.
“East Belfast fully deserved their victory. They were excellent and were really good. So credit where it is due.
“We were awful on the day, to be honest. It is the worst I have ever seen us. We have enjoyed lots of good performances and results, and we have to get this out of our
system.
“We have a good team so we don’t need to throw everything out the window. But it is the manner of the defeat that hurts.
“Nobody saw Saturday’s performance coming. Not one player performed and I can’t put my finger on why it happened.
“We can’t hide behind it and we have to be big enough and take it.
“We have a great fan base and committee and we brought a good following on Saturday. And we let them down by that performance.
“So we owe everyone at the club a response or apology. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if we got beat 2-1 or 6-0, we are out of the cup and we can’t let it linger.
“Thankfully we have the chance to put things right.”
Friday’s Premier final against Windmill Stars has been rearranged from the 2019/20 season that ended prematurely.
It bizarrely means that both teams will have ineligible players who featured for other clubs in the competition during that campaign two years ago.
“We will have a completely different panel of players for Friday,” Forsythe added.
“We have players who are cup tied, ones who played in the Premier Cup for other clubs back in 2020.
“We also had a sending off yesterday and a player who picked up his 10th booking, so they are out of the final as well.
“But we have a big squad and there is a reason for that. We have a lot of games.
“I also brought on three reserve kids at half-time on Saturday and they were excellent. They came on for senior players and they were probably our three best players, alongside the young goalkeeper we brought in after our other keeper got injured in the warm-up.
“So those youngsters have nothing to feel sorry about. They were brilliant and have been brilliant for the reserves all season.”
Forsythe added: “I think there were a lot of people who probably enjoyed seeing us on the receiving end on Saturday.
“But it is a long season, and when you are a good club and a big club at our level, with lots of ambition, people can be a bit vitriolic and enjoy seeing us lose.
“But Saturday’s result won’t define our season, and it would be fitting if we could get a response on Friday night. But that is going to be another extremely difficult game.
“I have faced WIndmill twice as manager of Ballymacash. We drew in my first game in charge, and we won the second one.
“I fully expect it to be a really difficult game on Friday especially coming off the back of Saturday’s defeat.
“I just hope we get a reaction from the players.”
