Declan O'Hara says Cliftonville have a "massive summer" ahead of them.
O'Hara's four-game tenure came to an end in Saturday's European play-off final defeat at Glentoran.
With a permanent successor to former boss Paddy McLaughlin still to be appointed O'Hara knows the next few weeks are going to be crucial for the Reds.
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“It will be a massive summer for the club," he said.
“To be honest, I really don’t know what’s going on (behind the scenes).
“Maybe over the next few days I’ll find out more, but the next few months is massive for the club.
“The bottom line is, we have good players in the dressing room. We’ve been challengers over the past two seasons. I really feel for the players.
“They work their socks off in every single training session.
“Now it’s down to the new manager, whoever that will be.
“It will be down to him to keep the team challenging for trophies.
“The players will go away and have a break. The deserve a break because they have been at it for almost an entire year.
“It’s a long time in football. They’ll have a holiday and after that, whatever happens, happens. I genuinely don’t know what’s up ahead."
O'Hara had hoped to sign off by securing European football for the Reds, but it wasn't to be.
Even though he was disappointed with the manner of the goals they conceded at The Oval, he refused to be too critical on his players.
“The goals we conceded were criminal, but I’m not going to rip the back out of the players because they have been excellent all season," he said.
“We’ve had a tough six weeks and, this defeat is a hard one to take because there was so much at stake.
"The reality is our first shot was in the 92nd minute when the game was over.
“We asked the boys to be a bit more direct in the second half, but Glentoran simply cancelled us out. The sending off compounded what was a poor day for us.
“That is Rocksie’s game . . . he likes getting stuck in, but it was his first tackle.
"I’m going to be honest, I didn’t really see it, but that lads in the dugout with me just raised their eyebrows, so I knew it was a red card.”
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