Gary Boyle speaks after Newry City's defeat to Dungannon Swifts

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Newry City boss Gary Boyle offered no excuses after his side were beaten 4-1 by Dungannon Swifts at Stangmore Park.

Transcript

00:00 Gary, obviously tough loss for you today. What in your opinion went wrong?

00:04 The start of the game. It was everything that we didn't want it to be. We're 1-0 down after

00:08 5 minutes, 3-0 down after half an hour. The conditions undoubtedly played a part in that

00:14 but we talked about playing the conditions, playing in sort of our attacking third in

00:19 the first 15 minutes until the game settled down. Unfortunately they were able to do that

00:23 and we weren't able to keep the ball out of the back of the net which was hugely frustrating

00:26 because we feel over the last four weeks that we eradicated that sort of vulnerability.

00:33 So it's something that we need to reassess, get back to the drawing board quickly and

00:37 tackle it this week.

00:38 You know, probably Liam Bagnell, Ciarán O'Connor, Thomas Lockhart, it's probably fair to say

00:43 that's your first choice midfield. All three of those players unavailable. Do you think

00:47 that showed maybe today and you lost the battle around the middle of the field?

00:50 Well listen, we've assembled a squad. I've never made excuses for the players that aren't

00:53 available. We've players good enough to wear the Newry shirt in my opinion. Did we show

00:58 that today? Possibly not. And listen, it's a bad day for the group, it's a bad day for

01:04 the club and ultimately that responsibility falls with me. I'll be trying really hard

01:08 this week to try to turn our fortunes around.

01:11 You mentioned just defensively that maybe you thought you'd turned the corner but the

01:14 goals still are racking up. What have you put that down to? Is there anything in particular?

01:20 We'll have to watch them back. As I say, I thought over the last four weeks that the

01:25 so-called better sides that we've looked really, really defensively solid. But today, I think

01:30 the game could have been 10-6. There was chances aplenty at both ends. They've taken four of

01:36 potentially eight, nine clear-cut chances. We've taken one now to six, seven clear-cut

01:41 chances and when the game goes like that, in terms of that basketball nature, you go,

01:46 we go, it's whoever takes their chances that's going to come out on top. Even at 1-0, I think

01:51 we had a couple of really, really big chances in the first half. We didn't take them. We

01:55 go 2-3 behind and the game's always a struggle after that. We regrouped at half-time and

02:00 came out and we had two huge chances again at the start of the second half and I think

02:04 if it goes 3-2, who knows what can happen. But did we deserve it? No, in the long and

02:10 short of it. We'll be working tirelessly from now to try to re-evaluate, see what went wrong

02:18 and try to fix it.

02:19 Now, obviously, bottom of the table. What needs to change?

02:23 As I say, I'll have to reassess it. It's not where we want to be. It's not where we envisaged

02:28 being almost halfway through the season. But the table doesn't lie. For all our moral victories

02:34 in terms of performances, we haven't got any points. I've said many times that it's a results-based

02:39 business and that responsibility falls on my shoulders and I haven't delivered. So,

02:44 I'll be working from now to try to re-evaluate, reassess and see what happens because the

02:50 only way has to be up from here. We can't feel sorry for ourselves.

02:53 Yeah, and of course, it was already a big game coming up against Glenavon at home, probably

02:56 even bigger now. I suppose the supporters will probably be expecting to see a reaction

03:00 and will you be expecting to see a reaction next Friday night?

03:02 Yeah, absolutely. And as I say, the players are really disappointed and they are a good

03:06 group and an honest group. We didn't deliver today in terms of our performance and the

03:10 players are hurting. I know it's frustrating for the supporters and I feel every single

03:15 one of their pain. All we want to do is make it better for the supporters. We would love

03:19 the result to have been the other way today and going off to everybody giving each other

03:23 high fives. Unfortunately, it wasn't and we've got to try to fix it. We have to plead with

03:28 the supporters to stick with us because ultimately, they're so influential in terms of results

03:34 and we ask them to come out in their numbers again on Friday night and support the boys

03:37 because we're going to need it in what's going to be another hugely important game.

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