A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME

ORAN Kearney has told his players it’s important they ‘hit the ground running this season’.

Speaking to Times Sport ahead of this Saturday’s Carling Premiership opener at Dungannon Swifts, Kearney said there is a real buzz about The Showgrounds following the summer rebuilding, but he added there will be no excuses for people not producing the goods from the first whistle.

“Everything’s changed this term,” he said honestly. “Last season when we came in we were trying to do a job to take us through to the end of April.

“Some people might say it’s a period of transition given the amount of new faces we’ve brought in and it might take a year or two to achieve anything.

“But I don’t buy into that. For me the transition period was the six weeks over the summer. We spent that time recruiting all the new players we’ve brought into the club.

“The need for them at a club of this size is to hit the ground running.

“I’m craving that from them and they must be up to the mark from the first minute, because I don’t do transition periods.

“We’ve worked tremendously hard in pre-season and we have to make sure we carry that through.”

Kearney has also blown any suggestion of Dungannon being some sort of a ‘bogey side’ for the Bannsiders completely out of the water.

“I understand Dungannon have been a bit of a bogey team for us especially down there,” he said.

“But when you bring in 11 or 12 new guys who have never been here to experience the so called ‘bogey side’ then that goes out the window.

“I’ve never experienced it and I don’t expect to. We won the one game we played them since I took over and I fully expect us to go down there and do the same.

“We had someone watch them on Saturday as we felt they would maybe show their hand as it’s their final friendly game.

“But we’ve a fair idea as to how they’ll play and what we’ll be up against.

“It’s a super ground and probably at this stage in the season when the grass can be a bit sticky it’s probably one of the better grounds to ensure a decent surface.”

So what are the boss’ targets in what will be his first full season in charge at The Showgrounds?

“Straight away we just say we want to better the previous season,” he said. “There’s no doubt if we can do that then we’ll be making progress and getting somewhere.

“To finish seventh last time gives us the beautiful target of finishing in the top six.

“No matter who has gone or who has come in, if we finish in the top six it’s progress.