A frustrated Darren Mullen spoke to us this evening after his side failed to perform in a 2-0 home loss against Annagh United.
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00:00Dan, another per performance, another per defeat, just want to get your thoughts on the game.
00:05Yeah, per hard argue with that. Last week I was annoyed. This week, to be honest, second half you're standing in the lane.
00:13I didn't shout that much because there's very little I can do. There's honestly only so much I can do here.
00:17You can't come quick enough to be honest. There's a certain type of football that I want to play, a certain type of characteristics that you want in your team.
00:27At the minute we're just not showing it. We are, we are for a reason. There's no fluke. You just need to try and fix it.
00:37But it's very difficult to do that when you haven't got the players to do it.
00:42Are you surprised by how much work needs to be done in order to rebuild?
00:46Last week you talked about that there is obviously a rebuild ongoing, but do you feel at the minute you're quite far away or very far away from where you want to be or where you need to be?
00:55Surprised and to be honest annoyed. As someone who left the club in the Premiership, that I'm now battling relegation in the Championship.
01:01It's not good enough. It's not where it should be. But there is an annoyance with it and you can compare the last time when we won the Championship and then got promoted.
01:11Those two squads, that's what we built up, that's what we had. They all say there's nothing I can do about that.
01:19I can't run on this and I can't wish that I had younger players or lads back.
01:23But you see even tonight, Engine and Moaner, two of the lads that are playing with me and they show what it means.
01:30There's only so much the young lads can do and it's unfair on them coming in as well because you're throwing them into deep end expecting to do something new.
01:38You like to blood them in as a group. But yeah, it's difficult. Is it worse than I thought? Yes.
01:44Worse than I thought to be honest. But we just have to stick together and try and stay within distance of other teams come January.
01:59There's no guarantee that you'll get a multitude of players in. It's a difficult time to get players in.
02:03But you could lead up to seven or eight players, that's the reality of it. Whether that'll happen or not in the finance of the club, that's another thing.
02:15But yeah, I said last week it is a rebuild and I can only apologise to the fans because if I'm standing watching that I'm going to be annoyed.
02:24And I feel the annoyance starting along the line. Watching that, it's just some of the quality we're not showing.
02:32Even just a build-up play, keep it, build it up, not hoofing the ball up. It's not we practising training, we're trying to implement that.
02:40I don't mean to slaughter the players, there's only so much we can do here as a group.
02:48I'm standing here, it's not painting a great picture of where we're at, but the reality of it is it's not good.
02:53It isn't good, we're not in a false position. There's no point in saying we're not in a false position.
03:00We are, we are. We need to get a few bodies back. We got Fra back tonight, Ryan back.
03:03Let's give us an annual of 40 back next week. Noel will come back.
03:06So there is players that come in and then new players that come in and hopefully then we'll see between now and the end of the season.
03:14It is going to be a long and painful season, I said that at the start, but the object now is to stay in this league.
03:20That for me is poor. Considering two years ago we were in the Premiership and winning the Mullister Cup
03:28and then you come to now fighting relegation back down to the Premier League, that's poor.
03:32It's tough for me to take, to be honest. It's tougher I'm sure for the fans to take as well.
03:37But as I said before, I'll fix it. I'm here to try and fix it.
03:42I knew it was going to be difficult. Is it more difficult than I thought? Yes.
03:44But that just means you have to work harder to try and fix it and we will.
03:47You've mentioned the January window a few times now.
03:50Is that massively important for you in terms of identifying the type of players you need and maybe players going out the door as well?
03:55Yeah, we're working on that at the minute.
03:58Speaking to the clubs about players and trying to get a few in and a target list.
04:04You don't always get them. You have plan A and plan B, whatever it might be.
04:08So yeah, we look at that and then possibly outgoings as well to try and trim the squad.
04:14So yeah, we're working on behind the scenes.
04:16I know it needs done. It's not rocket science where we need help in certain areas and reinforcements.
04:24Because even some of our play is good, but it gets to a point where we're not even sure if the keeper had much of a save to make the night.
04:33So yes, it's disappointing. It's not good. It's not what I expect.
04:36But what I can assure the fans is it will get better.
04:39It will. It's going to take a bit of time and a bit of pain, but it will get better.