Ciaran Kelly could barely conceal his delight after Larne Tech’s survival hopes were turbocharged by a 3-1 win over title challengers Crumlin Star at the weekend.
“I’m still buzzing,” CK confirmed down the line on Sunday afternoon, and little wonder, with the three points transforming the mood around the place.
It’s all bunched up there in mid-table now, with just two points separating six teams from the Tech sitting second from bottom, and one-time Permier Division league leaders 1st Bangor currently occupying eighth.
With six league games to go, which includes the reverse fixture against Star and this Saturday’s trip to Rathfriland, CK’s men are nowhere near out of the woods.
But now they have a fighting chance, and that’s all the boss was asking for after a really tough start to his and Johnny McCullough’s managerial partnership at Dennis Harvey Park.
“I’m buzzing,” said Kelly, “and it’s been coming. The performances have been there week after week, but sometimes we just haven’t got ourselves over the line.
“But yesterday to a man, it was an unreal performance.
“I think I read East Belfast’s assistant saying this season is different, there’s no whipping team, everyone can take points off everyone and that was proved yesterday again.
“We did our homework on Star, I spoke to a couple of coaches that I know because we haven’t played them this season, and we set our team up from there.”
Of course many will point to the return of hugely experienced trio Chris ‘Chick’ Keenan, Chris Morton and Paul ‘Giggsy’ Maguire – all of whom have since backtracked on their decision to retire last summer – plus the addition of Matty Herron as key to the Tech’s revival.
But as CK points out, seven starters in Saturday’s win are still in their teens, while in Ryan Marcus, they’ve a goalkeeper who hasn’t been found wanting when called in to replace Keenan.
“Since Christmas, we’ve just gone up a level,” added Kelly, whose side have lost just once in their last five league outings, claiming three wins in that time.
“We played Drumaness back-to-back, we beat them down there and then they came up to ours and won, and in that game, Chick has just had a daughter and he couldn’t play, and Giggsy had Covid, so we were missing them two, two big personalities as well.
“But Chick couldn’t play again yesterday, so Ryan came up from the seconds and he’s been absolutely outstanding in every game he’s played, we have no problems throwing him in.
“To a man they were great, and every one of the young ones stood up.
“Now we’ve six cup finals left. We got the boys in last week and said we need between 12 and 15 points to be sure (of safety), it’s a big ask because we only got 12 between the start of the season and Christmas, so we’re looking the same amount of points again with a lot less games. But it’s a hell of a start and in the manner we did it.”
