‘Promotion is highly unlikely’ - admits Kee

The defeat means the Drumahoe club are now five points behind second place Newry City, who have also played two games less than ’Stute and Kee concedes promotion back to the Premiership isn’t going to happen.

“I have to say that I was really disappointed after our game against Bangor, in fact it was probably the lowest I have been in a number of years after a match, so I don’t want to feel like that again any time soon,” conceded Kee.

“It was bare basic mistakes where again we had all the possession and were in control of the game, but didn’t take our chances and gave away a poor goal, first goal, which was a killer for us, however in saying that I was a little disappointed with three or four players reactions after the opening goal, I have to take the hit because I brought the players in.

“It’s going to be tough and it’s highly unlikely that we’ll get promoted this season, which is disappointing, because I felt at the start of the season we had a good enough team to challenge, even up until Saturday, I still felt we had a chance.”

Kee believes his squad needs to strengthen up both mentally and physically and he’s already planning for next season.

“There is a lack of characters in the dressing room, we have a lot of players who are good on the ball and to be fair are still young, but we need more leaders in the dressing room,” he added.

“We don’t have much physical presence in certain areas of the pitch and that is something I’m going to have to address for next season, although I still want to finish the season strongly I will also be having one eye on next season and maybe telling one or two players that their future’s lie elsewhere, while other players in the squad will be playing for their futures not just at ’Stute, but if they want to continue to play at a decent level.”

This weekend the Waterside men travel to second from bottom Glebe Rangers (KO 3pm), a fixture, which on paper should be easy for ’Stute, but in recent weeks they have struggled against so called lesser opposition.

Kee won’t be changing his style of play, even though against a lot of sides in Championship One they have struggled.

“I’m not going to give up my principles and start hoffing the ball up the field, unfortunately that is the nature of Northern Ireland football, where no teams wants to get the ball down and play football.

“I want my teams to play football and although we are doing that, it hasn’t brought us the results we have wanted, but I won’t be changing my philosophy.”