‘Keep believing’ says McCann

The Whites’ face a crunch bottom of the league battle when they travel to Donegal Celtic tomorrow (Saturday, 3pm) as they take on the side which lies directly above them in the league.

Distillery will have to overhaul DC if they hope to stay in the top tier, and with two games in hand over their nearest rivals, McCann believes his side has every chance of staying up.

“I expect two teams who are fighting for survival to give everything they have,” said McCann.

“We are five points behind them but we have two games in hand and have come into some good form recently, with the two cup ties against Crusaders, there was nothing between the two teams and it took a penalty shoot-out for us to go out of the cup, and they are second in the table. I have told the players, if they can go to Seaview and go to Windsor and get a draw, then if we can keep believing then we can stay up.

“They just need to keep believing in themselves and doing what they are doing. The fight and spirit in the team is incredible,” McCann added. “I can’t speak highly enough of them. They are doing the club proud at the minute.

McCann says that the new additions to the squad in January has added to the competition for places, leaving every player fighting for their place.

“There have been a few new faces,” said McCann. “Aaron Boyd in particular has basically been scoring nearly every week, but the rest of the players have raised their game. No one is in the comfort zone and everyone is fighting for their place in the team. Hopefully this will only spur the players on to be better in every game. Every game also means something, they have something to play for, which they wouldn’t have if they were lying around the middle.

“If we get a good result on Saturday there will be only two points in it between us and Donegal Celtic, plus we have two games in hand over them. We also have to play them at our place and we will have three or four games at home once the split comes. Come the split, it will be in our own hands, that’s all I ask for, if that’s the case I will be more than happy.

“All I can ask is that the fans keep behind us and keep believing. If everyone sticks together I believe we can stay up in the league and then hopefully we can move on from there next season,” McCann commented.