By Rory McKee
ARDS manager John Bailie has admitted they must take ‘a stark look’ at their methods on and off the pitch, with Saturday’s defeat to Harland and Wolff Welders marking a sixth loss on the trot.
Despite a spirited second-half rally, manager Bailie and Ards were left with an all too familiar feeling at the full-time whistle as they continue their slide down the table.
“I thought for the first half an hour, we looked okay and then we gave away a really poor goal. That meant our heads dropped in the 15 minutes before half-time and to concede the second goal when we did was a killer blow,” he said.
“We know that confidence is low and there is a bit of deja vu in terms of being well in the game and a mistake at the back sees us give away a goal. At two-nil down, I wasn’t seeing the belief that we could get back into the game so we made a few tweaks and we challenged the players by saying could we go and win the second half?” he added.
“We started quite slowly (after half-time) but I felt for 30 or maybe 35 minutes we had a good go at it. There were a couple of opportunities, like when we hit the post from a few yards, and if that goes to 3-2 with five minutes to go then who knows.
“But ultimately, despite being well in the game for two thirds of the game, we conceded four goals in the other 30 minute period and could have conceded another four. That’s the worry, we were cut open far too easily, standing off players and not getting close enough to them.”
Bailie also explained the decision to give James Taylor a first league start of the season in place of Marc Matthews: “Marc has been in the firing line and we just felt he maybe deserved a bit of a break.
“He’s done reasonably well so it was never about Marc’s performance levels, we just felt James deserved an opportunity and he certainly didn’t let us down. But it hasn’t changed the outcome of the game.”
Looking ahead, Bailie acknowledged the difficulty of the current run but stressed the importance of squad unity. When asked if he still thought he was the right person to lead Ards through this period, he replied: “I’ve got the hunger, I don’t know whether I have the belief.
“We’ve had long conversations with the players, tried different shapes and different personnel. From the coaching side, we are giving them the right information in terms of how the other team sets up and what we need to do to limit opportunities, but unfortunately the coaches can’t pass the ball for them once they cross the white line.
“We’re all in difficult places, there’s a squad of 20 players and maybe 10 in the backroom team and we all need to be strong and in this together.
“It’s a results based business and certainly we need to take a stark look at what we’re doing because it hasn’t been good enough,” he said.
“We’re here to try and win football games and for the past month now, we haven’t been able to do that. It’s about trying to get the right formula to get back to where we were six weeks ago, which was in a good place.
“But it’s like the pin has just burst the balloon and we haven’t been able to pick up the pieces. We always lacked a bit of consistency to push the top end of the table but I think we were sitting third or fourth and we have suddenly plummeted.
“Teams don’t become bad teams overnight, this isn’t just down to luck, it’s down to having that will and desire to win matches and we need to be a lot better.
“When you lose games, you analyse everything and your head goes round in circles,” he added.
“You don’t sleep, it’s running round your head at three o’clock in the morning and you’re thinking of one thing you can do to change the rut that we’re in.
“We certainly can’t just do the same thing like we did in the early part of the season when it was working, so maybe we do need to drastically change something because this has dragged on for too long.”
