Kearney hoping to strike a deal with in-form frontman

The striker, who is currently on-loan at The Showgrounds from Derry City, but that deal comes to an end in January.

Allan has spoken of his desire to extend his spell at the Ballycastle Road, and Kearney is keen to work out a new deal with the Glaswegian.

The former Dundee United man netted his sixth of the season against Ballinamallard United on Saturday and Kearney told Times Sport he has been pleased with his contribution.

“We would be keen to keep Jordan here,” said the Bannsiders’ boss.

“In football you get opportunities if you produce on the pitch and that’s what he has been doing.

“We will be aiming to speak to him over the next couple of weeks about extending his stay here.

“Ideally we would like one or two in come January and the same maybe going out, but it’s hard to know as January can be a difficult month.

“It will all come down to what is available.”

Fellow striker James McLaughlin also found the goal trail again on Saturday after a frustrating night against Crusaders in the League Cup.

“That’s James’s job and he would tell you the same, he had a frustrating night on Wednesday, he could have had a hat-trick or two,” said Kearney.

“But I said to him when he was going on today that’s the way it goes for strikers and that it would only need one chance today, and that’s how it turned out.

“It’s a squad game, it takes more than eleven players to get you through a season. With James having played 120 minutes in midweek and only back from a wee knock I thought it wouldn’t have been right to have put him into another 90 today.

“But we shared the load well, Jordan has done well and got another goal today to compliment that as well.”

The Bannsiders travel to Carrick Rangers this Saturday with Kearney expecting another tough game.

“There has been a noted difference in Carrick since Aaron Callaghan took over the reins. We are under no illusions that it will be another tough game for us, there are no easy games at this level,” he said.

“We’ll look to get two gentler sessions done this week after the exertions of the previous seven days.

“We are sitting with a squad of 21 players and 20 are fit at the minute and how we manage players I hope is having an impact on that in realtion in trying to keep everyone fresh and fit,” he added.