Kee thrilled with McCauley’s form

In fact Kee thought fellow midfielder Darren McCauley produced a man of the match display against Colin Malone’s men.

“McCauley was really good on Saturday in fact he was excellent, it was a difficult soft pitch, but Darren was like a machine,” stated Kee.

“(Aaron) Walsh had a steady enough game, it was another hour and a bit for (Declan) McKeever, who has been carrying a few niggling injuries in recent weeks, so it was good that he put in a good shift defensively for the team.

“John Curran and Graham Crown were excellent, Joe Gray played well at right back and Graeme Taylor gave a decent account of himself with Dean Jarvis being out.

“(Ryan) Semple and (Stephen Parkhouse) Parkie both did well and Mickey’s second half display in terms of goal was absolutely fantastic.”

In fairness to the ’Stute gaffer he was also full of praise for McCrudden and he feels his recent goalcoring form has improved his game no end.

“Mickey’s goals changed the match, because if you don’t score goals then you don’t win games,” he added.

“In fairness he has got a goal threat to his game and that’s something which wasn’t their last year, but now he has got it and every time he gets into the box, not only does he look like he’s going to make goals, but he looks as he’s going to score.

“So credit to him and as I say goals change matches, that’s what he’s done on Saturday and he’ll be rightfully getting good plaudits and there will be more people taking notice of him.”

Kee was also pleased that despite dominating things possession wise and coming in score-less at the break, his players didn’t get frustrated and they in the end ran out comfortable winners.

“We did well in the first half except we didn’t take our chances, which is the same old, same old for us this season, but in fairness to the players there has been a typical wee trend going on against us this year, where teams in the first half have made it very difficult for us and it was no different on Saturday.

“In saying that we probably played Loughgall at a good time because I think Wesley Boyle was suspended, they had a player injured as well and they seem to have a small squad now, but after the game Colin Malone said that we were the best team his side had faced this season, which was nice of him to say.

“We had good control of the game in the first half, their attacks were a kind of sporadic, Marty (Gallagher) didn’t have any serious kind of saves to make in the match, but particularly in the first half.

“At half-time I told the players that they would be depending on set-pieces, so we had to guard against that and more importantly we have to get a goal and we scored within about 90 seconds. (Ryan) Semple put in a good cross, Parkie’s had a great header, which hit the post and nearly hit the second post and McCrudden has followed it in and smashed it home from a tight angle.

“Then in fairness to McCrudden he scored a second goal when he attacked the defence, got into the box and bend it into the top corner with I think his left foot, unfortunately they got a goal back from a corner kick, when we didn’t pick up the second ball and a striker stuck his leg out to divert it home, with about 15 minutes to go.

“Thankfully for us about five minutes later McCrudden went and scored virtually the exact same goal, he got at the full-back and then bend it into the net, so that was three good goals from him, but I felt it was a real good team performance.”