Ferguson eager to make January signings

“January can’t come quick enough to get a couple of bodies in,” admitted Ferguson after Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat by Portadown consigned United to a fourth straight Danske Bank Premiership loss.

“At this stage we’re making inroads and talking about who we would like to get in within the wage structure.

“We just want gradual improvement so that we can generate more money to make the budget bigger to be able to attract better players but it won’t happen overnight.

“We’re not in the position that some other clubs are to go and pay players the amounts of money that those players are looking for but we will try to get players in who we think will make an improvement to the squad that is already here.

“It’s pretty evident where we need to strengthen - we know exactly where we’re falling down and it has to be better.

“You look at other clubs who are very strong at the top end of the pitch and that is ultimately what can win matches for those teams.”

Ferguson hopes the Sky Blues can get their season back on track this Saturday when they travel to improving Glenavon (3pm).

“If we had played against DC the way we played against Portadown, we would have won at DC – the difference was that Portadown have better qualities in certain areas.

“We need consistency every week regardless of who we’re playing – we seem to raise our game every week against the so-called bigger teams and let it drop against the so-called lesser teams, which we cannot afford to do.

“We’re still trying to build the squad, gel the right players together and it will take time but we’re up for the challenge.

“We’re not happy at losing four league games in a row, even though they were difficult games against good sides – the DC defeat was the really disappointing one.

“The reality is that we have lost four in a row, other teams have pegged us back and we’ve dropped from sixth to eighth in the table which is disappointing.

“But there are plenty of games left to get points on the board and catch other teams.

“We will strive to get as much out of the players as we can to get into that top six and we’ll be disappointed if we don’t because it was one of our main aims this season but we’ll need to get players back to achieve that.”

Ferguson is likely to have to shuffle his squad once again for the trip to Mourneview Park.

“Allan Jenkins got 90 minutes under his belt on Saturday which will stand by him but again we lost Chris Rodgers and David Cushley to injuries which we’ll have to look at during the week.

“Gary Thompson had a bit of reaction during the week and bruising so he wasn’t able to play – hopefully it won’t be too bad because he’s an important player for us but if they’re injured there’s nothing you can do about it, other than get on with it,” added Ferguson.

* Seven Towers Supporters’ Club transport to Mourneview Park leaves Henry Street car park at 1.45pm. The club’s Joker promotion wil be drawn prior to departure.