Downey denies it's a must win as key Glebe battle awaits Town

Banbridge Town forward Conor Downey reckons this weekend's game isn't a case of win or panic.
Conor Downey is confident his Banbridge Town side will avoid the drop. INBL1546-234EBConor Downey is confident his Banbridge Town side will avoid the drop. INBL1546-234EB
Conor Downey is confident his Banbridge Town side will avoid the drop. INBL1546-234EB

His side are currently five points off the relegation places with three games remaining.

However, the last two games are against teams above Town in the table. Onlookers, then, could be forgiven for placing extra significance on this weekend’s tie.

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Town travel to take on Glebe Rangers on Saturday (kick-off 3pm). The hosts are just three points behind the locals as things stand and a defeat could see Town slip closer to the bottom five.

Nonetheless, Downey says the mood is bright in the squad, spirits remains high, and he is hoping for three positive results to end the campaign.

“We’re confident,” he said. “This weekend a bit of a cup final for us but they all are now and have been for a while.

“If we get the result that we want on Saturday then happy days but if we have to beat somebody else after that then we’ll be confident that we can do that.

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We fancy ourselves to get something out of both of those final two games as well. We know we should have beaten the PSNI at their place and we massively owe Sport & Leisure for what happened at Crystal Park.

“The boys really want to get something out of the game against them and bringing PSNI down to our place, we will fancy ourselves.”

Town’s had been six points ahead of Glebe until Saturday, when Rangers picked up an unexpected 1-0 victory over Queen’s University. That tightened things up above the relegation spots and closed the gap to Town.

“We’ve actually had a couple of bad results against them up there as well so we definitely owe them.”

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Town have lost all of their last three trips to Glebe, their last win coming almost four years ago in April 2012.

“It’s all about staying up now,” said Downey, “but we know that we are better than being involved in the relegation battle and we should be higher up the table than we are. We haven’t really looked at the table, well I haven’t anyway.

“I know that we’re where we want to be in terms of outside the bottom five positions but we know we need good results to stay there.

Downey missed a string of matches after straining a hip flexor but is back amongst the goals after scoring in the draw with Queen’s and he will be raring to go again on Saturday.

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