Enniskillen Head Coach Alasdair McKee
Despite a disappointing start to the season, losing to Limavady in the opening round of the Junior Cup, Enniskillen coach Alasdair McKee remains positive ahead of the start of the league season on Saturday.
Alasdair admits his side were ‘caught cold’ by the visitors on Saturday with the combination of bad decision making, inexperience and strong opponents leaving Skins chasing the game early on.
“We had to go chasing the game and Limavady were good and kept us pinned back and played a very tactical game.”
There were positives though for the upcoming season, which Alasdair saw from the performance.
“The set pieces went very well, we were very dominant in the scrum and we had a lot of young players gaining valuable experience such as Paddy McCleery and Zach Charlton. One of the main positives was the fact we got ourselves back into the game, we didn’t die and turned a setback into a positive.”
After a strong pre-season which saw wins over Ballina and Cavan, Alasdair has high hopes for his young side.
“Our hopes are to competitive right the way through. It is going to be tight like last year, maybe even tighter. Ballyclare will have ambitions for promotions as will Omagh. One of maybe five or six teams could make it up.”
Despite losing key players in playmaker Chris McVitty and second row James Carleton to Portadown he believes there is enough talent in the squad to make an impression both in the league and Towns cup.
“We have quite a few players from Portora and we have big Alex Gormley from the under 19s, he’s going to be big for us also. We lost James and Chris, but we have to suck it up.
“It is always positive to have a young team, we just have to make sure we manage them properly and give them a bit of time.
“I’m very hopeful actually, we have probably 11 or 12 young players across the squad who played the majority of the season.Guys like Steven Fox, Johnny Foster and Kaine Holden gained valuable experience last year and will be better for it.
“I think a good season would be us in the top part of the league with still something to play for in February time.”