Cushley rues ‘terrible’ United performance at Ferney Park

The frontman admitted the Sky Blues produced a “terrible” performance, both individually and collectively, as their miserable record at Ferney Park continued.

“Where do you start with that performance?” said Cushley.

“Fair play to Ballinamallard who played well but we just didn’t start from the get-go.

“We were very wasteful with the ball, particularly when we got into wide areas.

“We were talking on the bus on the way down about the fact we have never scored down there - it’s hard to believe.

“The pitch is one of the better surfaces you’ll play on in this league so we certainly can’t use that as an excuse.

“When you’re top of the table you know that all you need to do is concentrate on winning games because if you do that, it doesn’t matter what any other team does.

“We didn’t play anywhere near the way we have been playing in terms of putting pressure on opponents and closing down the ball.

“We let Ballinamallard play so we contributed to our own downfall.

“We didn’t play well but we still had chances, although their keeper didn’t make too many saves.

“We had a lot of shots blocked - big Mark Stafford must have blocked four or five efforts himself.

“It’s just one of those things - we should have done an awful lot better.

“I don’t know what was wrong with me on Saturday - I was terrible on the day and some of the other lads could probably say the same about themselves.

“Individually we didn’t play well and when that happens, you don’t play well as a team.”

Cushley, United’s leading scorer for the past two seasons, has formed a promising strike partnership with Matthew Tipton but he insists:

“It’s not about who scores the goals - it’s about the team winning games.

“We have a big game against Glentoran this week and we need to get back to winning ways.

“It’s only us who can make the changes and get back to winning ways because we want to stay as high up the table as possible,” added Cushley.