Coleraine vs Glentoran: Jamie Glackin opens up on captaincy and embracing added responsibility
Jamie Glackin admits he "never really saw" himself as Coleraine captain, but it's a responsibility he is already embracing. The 29-year-old was handed the armband following an injury to Lyndon Kane.
The Bannsiders have shown some shoots of recovery in the past week, with a big derby win over Ballymena United followed by a narrow midweek defeat to Cliftonville. Next up it's the visit of Glentoran to the Showgrounds on Saturday afternoon.
"I never really saw myself as a captain, although I captained my Milk Cup team. But that's youth football, men's football is different," Glackin said.
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"It's been great. It's a bit of a different style for me, where I'm more of a quiet player, and focus on me.
"I'm not that sort of captain where I'm gonna be roaring and shouting and doing mad stuff, but more about guiding the likes of Senan (Devine) through games. You can see by his performance he didn't really need that because he was super anyway
"I like to lead a bit on the pitch."
Glackin described last Saturday's 1-0 win over Ballymena United as a "pivotal one". It ended a three-game losing streak for Dean Shiels' side, leaving them perched in seventh spot in the table.
"The Ballymena game was the pivotal one where we came off the back of losing. I was wondering if there would be much of a turnout but the support was super and it got us over the line," he added.
"That's what we really need, especially for a young team and up and coming players. We need the support on us and not against us and hopefully on Saturday we can get the three points no matter what way we play.
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"The mood's been great, it's been great all season. The errors that we've made to concede goals is the only downside in games, bar the Linfield game where from minute one we didn't kick on.
"Since Dean and Michael (O'Connor) came in the attention to detail has been super. You can only do so much on the training pitch, individual errors don't make up for the work you've put in in training.
"If we can cut out the individual errors and stop conceding sloppy goals we're gonna be a good side. People think because you're full-time you should be running over the top of teams, not in this league, it doesn't work in this league.
"I think just sticking together and getting the young boys on and playing minutes, getting them used to the league will stand us in good stead."
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