A gutted Daryl Evans was at a loss to elucidate East Belfast’s shock Metal Cup exit to Dunmurry Rec on the weekend regardless of a dominant efficiency from the house aspect.
It was a depressing day on the workplace for the birthday boy who turned 28 on Saturday, and much more so contemplating the Metal Cup was high of his hitlist this season.
Certainly, including a winner’s medal has turn into one thing of a private quest for the fashionable centre again, significantly in mild of the actual fact each his father Richard and youthful brother Taylor are the proud homeowners of mentioned medal, and each within the colors of the East, their hometown membership.
Sadly for Evans, nevertheless, his wait goes on.
“I’m unsure how we misplaced that,” he instructed the Belfast Telegraph.
“The primary 20 minutes, we began properly after which dropped off, though we have been on high the entire 90 minutes, we simply couldn’t create clear goalscoring alternatives and so they punished us for errors resulting in their objectives.”
East chief Scott Harvey had no complaints, including: “They annoyed us and it labored. Truthful play to them, they deserved it.”
The East’s incapacity to hit the web, partly as a result of a superb particular person efficiency from visiting Dunmurry Rec goalkeeper Matthew McClurg, stands in stark distinction to how they've began the season, scoring 23 objectives in 5 Novice League outings thus far.
So Evans has no considerations about that aspect of their recreation, significantly with the early impression of teenager James Holland, snapped up over the summer time by Harvey after beforehand signing professional phrases with Crusaders.
“We’ve introduced in a whole lot of youthful gamers, a whole lot of them are underneath 25, like Jamesy Holland,” defined Evans.
“We’ll all the time rating objectives, and Jamesy has been good. For me, I can’t see him sticking round right here for too lengthy if he retains his head down and retains going the best way he’s going.
“He can do all the pieces, he’s about six foot, he’s fast, he simply brings one thing completely different to us.
“For my part, we might nonetheless do with one other two skilled boys in there as a result of we're so younger, however we’ll see, come the tip of the season, I’m nonetheless assured we ought to be there or thereabouts.”
A protege of Paul Kirk, who signed him at Lisburn Rangers after which introduced him to Rathfrlland, Evans additionally counts Ards and Glenavon amongst his former golf equipment.
However hailing from the Newtownards Street, East Belfast — by the way one in every of Kirk’s previous golf equipment too — all the time held an emotional pull, an attraction solely strengthened by the household connection.
“My dad performed right here and my brother’s been right here almost 10 years,” defined Evans, who received the Border and Bob Radcliffe Cups throughout 5 years at Rathfriland.
“I bear in mind going to observe my dad taking part in for them and my brother was at Distillery and got here right here when he was about 18 so I believed perhaps, and with all of the travelling too, it was the fitting time to make a transfer again residence.
“Hopefully, we will win a number of trophies now. At a membership this large within the Novice League, each season you could be going for one thing.”
Turning to their league kind, the place they’ve been held to 2 attracts in three already, Evans admits there’s room for enchancment, with this previous membership and present champions Rathfriland his choose because the crew to complete above.
“It’s been useless on,” he mentioned. “We’ve had a few hiccups alongside the best way, drawing with Crumlin United and Larne Tech, however some locations are onerous to go to and it’s going to be aggressive this season.
“The massive video games maintain themselves, our downside has been towards the smaller groups, mentality-wise.”
Certainly, for Evans, one of many greatest risks to the East is the East themselves, as he recognized complacency as a weak spot they should stamp out.
“Yeah, it’s a mentality factor with us,” mentioned Evans, into his second marketing campaign now with the East.
“Like final yr towards Killyleagh at residence, we drew 3-3 and all of us knew after that that we’d in all probability messed it (their league problem) up.
“It’s us perhaps considering we will simply exit and get one thing, nevertheless it doesn’t work like that within the Novice League, each recreation you must be on high of it.”