Chances need converting – OK

ORAN Kearney is looking forward to getting back to Premiership duty as his face Newry City at The Showgrounds tomorrow afternoon…

By: Charlie Cooke

Last week’s match against Hamilton in the SPFL Trust Trophy was very competitive throughout with Coleraine failing to put away a barrel load of chances as Lee Lynch was the man who able to score for the Bannsiders in the 3-1 defeat.

However, it is back to Sports Direct Premiership action this weekend and when Kearney was asked about our next competitive fixture against Gary Boyle’s side at The Showgrounds, he had this to say: “We’ve got to get back and at it.

“I thought our performance levels against Hamilton were good and there was a lot good about us.

“Yes, we’ve been punished in areas and we’ve got to put the ball in the net when the chances are there.

“However, there’s enough to go off, Andy Scott has a wee niggle at this moment in time and we pulled him out of it, as well as others we weren’t going to risk.

“Hopefully we can get them back in training this week and go from there.

“For us, it’s about going out and taking care of ourselves.

“We got the performance level against Hamilton for big parts of it, we were shaken for 10 minutes after the second but the key thing is getting 90 minutes of that this weekend.”

Kearney admits his side could have got more for their efforts in the defeat against the Accies but was pleased to finally being able to field two fit centre-halves after injury problems in that position.

“It’s frustrating, I don’t think we can complain about the amount of opportunities we created due to the chances we had,” he reflected.

“I think probably they had less opportunities but when got in there they put the ball into the back of the net, it’s something we work on week in, week out and it’s something we have to continue to aspire to do but in simple terms goals are big moments in games and we’ve got make sure we take our chances.

“Last Saturday was the first chance to have two fit centre halves in there and it gives us base and it’s nice to be able to approach a game from a different way and see what it looked like.

“We said it before the game yes they’re the holders, but we’d loved to get a result and possibly get an away day which is something different and it’s good for the fans and it’s good for everybody.

“We wanted to be as strong as possible but we realise that we’re five or six games into the season and by playing people with aches, pains, and niggles there comes a point maybe where it becomes more serious and people could miss 3, 4 or 5 weeks.

“We’ve a few players in that boat that we had to be careful of and sadly it’s where we’re at, we’ve got to protect those guys”.