JOHN Bailie pointed to the character of his Ards team after they came from behind to earn a draw against north Down rivals and Championship leaders Bangor on Tuesday night.
Ards trailed to a pair of Ben Arthurs goals at Clandeboye Park but halved the deficit through Darius Roohi before second-half substitute Zach Barr struck a 90th minute equaliser.
A proud Bailie was quick to praise his side at full-time for their resolve. “I thought our performance was very good and I feel the players deserve a hell of a lot of credit,” he said.
“It’s been a tough two or three weeks and when you look over at the sideline at the players we haven’t got available, I thought we showed a lot of character.
“We didn’t really deserve to go one behind, never mind two behind but a quality striker like Ben Arthurs will punish you for defensive lapses.
“Up until they scored, I felt it was the most comfortable we had been at any point this season,” added Bailie.
“We missed two or three guilt-edged chances in the first half and we felt confident at half-time that we were going to get more.
“Whilst Bangor had a couple of moments, we didn’t look under a great deal of pressure and we always had that threat. I think the goal at the end was the least we deserved.”
An already thin Ards squad became further depleted in midweek with injuries sustained by Conor Scannell and Odhran McCart. While losing two players is never in any manager’s plans, Bailie explained that it had been his intention for some of the younger players at the club to get their chance between now and the end of the season.
“We’re the walking wounded at the moment and we lost another two players tonight [Tuesday] in Conor Scannell and Odhran McCart. The plan was always to give a couple of the younger lads an opportunity over the next four games,” he revealed.
“We want to try and finish the season as well as possible, but at this minute in time it’s more about our performances than the results.
“I think it’s now mathematically impossible for us to go anywhere in terms of the league, so that gives us a chance to give a few of the younger lads some minutes and see what they can do.
“Ultimately, we have to test them in this environment and there’s no better place to test them than against the stronger teams in the league.”
