Ballymena start has been 'positive' -Kearney
Oran Kearney took over as Ballymena United manager in December
- Published
Manager Oran Kearney says he hopes Ballymena United can build on a "positive" start to the season against Glentoran on Friday.
The Sky Blues stunned Linfield 3-0 on the opening weekend of the season but lost 2-1 at Crusaders in their second outing.
Ballymena had a big turnover of players over the summer with 11 new arrivals at the Showgrounds, but Kearney is pleased with their start to the campaign.
"I think the big worry always with that first game is making sure that you're up to speed, particularly against a side that had played in Europe and maybe had been in earlier than us," Kearney told BBC Sport NI's Nicola McCarthy.
"So we were happy with the start that we got, but just a bit frustrated that we didn't back it up last Saturday."
Ballymena will aim to get back to winning ways against Glentoran on Friday night in a game which will be streamed live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport app and website.
Glentoran beat Limavady United in their first fixture but then lost to rivals Linfield on Saturday.
Kearney expects "a really tough game" against one of the favourites for the title.
The former Coleraine and St Mirren boss replaced Jim Ervin as Ballymena manager in December and the Sky Blues ended the previous campaign in ninth place.
For Kearney, it is all about improvement in the new season.
"We all want to do better than last year. I think that's the most important thing, and we want to get into a habit of winning games and competing in games," he added.
"Particularly towards the end of last season, I just felt there was games we struggled to compete in and we struggled to really chin the bar on many different aspects.
"I think, and hope, that we've fixed a lot of that."
The build-up to the third match week has been dominated by the takeover of Cliftonville by the Toronto Investment Group.
Kearney says that it is "exciting" to have new investment in the Irish League.
"We have four full-time clubs at the minute and Cliftonville look as if at some point they're going to move that direction as well.
"I'm not sure what the time frame of it is, but it has to be exciting times for the league, for the product and for all aspects of it."
