Hill: We created enough chances to win two games

“The players and fans were excited about our involvement in the Irish and Intermediate Cups, but my priority has always been the league and with all our newcomers now available we will be concentrating on improving our position in the table,” he said.

Asked for his reaction to the defeat by Lisburn Distillery, he said: ”I can’t believe the result. We beat them 6-2 at New Grosvenor two weeks ago and we dominated them even more in this Intermediate Cup tie at Dixon Park, but they are through to the semi-final and we are out.”

“As I saw it, we played them off the park but didn’t put away our chances,” he said. “We had loads of them and should have been four or five up at the break, but the scorecard was still blank.

“We had enough chances to win two games, but there is no panic and we can now forget about knockout trophies for this season and concentrate on moving up the table.”

That brings all the transfer recruits in to the equation, with Ben Browne, Andy Simms, Eoin Kane and Peter Duffin all raring to go in Championship 1 in the remaining weeks of the season.

Duffin and Simms starred for the Reserves on Saturday and, along with the other signings and Anthony Hill, who has recovered from a long-term knee injury, and Darren Doherty who missed Saturday’s defeat, they will be staking a claim for being involved in the action this weekend against Donegal Celtic.

This one is difficult to predict. In earlier meetings at Suffolk Road, DC won the league fixture 4-1, but a week later Comrades won the Irish Cup tie 3-2. However, with five goals scored in each of the previous outings the fans should be in for a treat, but they should be prepared for team changes.