CHAMPIONSHIP TWO: ‘A kick in the teeth’

James McLaughlin put the home side in front after he latched onto a Tommy Parson’s ball.

But after this Taylor’s side were guilty of lying back.

They invited the unbeaten border side on, and they grabbed two goals in 20 minutes to claim the victory.

“It was a real kick in the teeth for us.

“We played so well in the first half, and to be honest when they equalised, I would have been happy with a point, but heads went down and the went on to grab a winner.

“We said before the game that we would use the tie as a test to see how far we’d come as a team.

“Warrenpoint are unbeaten in the League, and to be honest I felt we gave them a good game, we were just lacking a bit of confidence.”

Taylor praised a number of his players, midfielder, Mervyn Nicholl, forwards James McLaughlin and Tommy Parson and defender Steven Tosh.

“Mervyn is carrying an injury and he’s not 100 percent match fit, and to be honest when he came off it was a big loss for us. Mervyn is a good communicator on the pitch, and we missed that when he came off. Graham Vauls is also carrying an injury and his substitution also had a knock on effect.”

Portstewart travel to Tobermore on Saturday, to take on Johnny Law’s side.

“Tobermore were beat on Saturday, so I know that Johnny [Law] will have his boys up for the tie.

“We are without Ian Todd and James McLaughlin through suspensions and it’s a wait and see on Mervyn Nicholl, Graham Vauls and Steven Tosh.

“ We’ll be working on a few things in training, but the most important thing is for the boys to keep their heads. We should be taking a lot of positives from the Warrenpoint game. We’re really starting to gel as a team and play some good football, so we’ll hopefully give Tobermore a game on Saturday.”