Extra celebration for Lyndon

COLERAINE defender Lyndon Kane admits it was important to bounce back from Saturday’s defeat to Cliftonville…

The Bannsiders would pocket all three points last night as two own goals would prove to be the difference in the win against Warrenpoint Town.

The success came on Kane’s 25th birthday would made it a night to remember for the full-back.

“I pretty much only wanted one present today and that was to get three points,” he said.

“It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t a game that everyone’s going to remember but games like that are hopefully ones that’s going to kick us on.

“I think we had one here last year where we beat Warrenpoint 2-1 and then we went on a run after that.

“Hopefully this is now the start of something coming in the next few weeks.”

After taking the lead through Luke Wade Slater’s own goal, the visitors would equalise as Alan O’Sullivan’s strike slipped through the gloves of Gareth Deane and into the net with a little more than 15 minutes remaining.

However, Kane recognised the importance of grabbing the third goal of the contest to bail the stopper out who has been a consistent performer since arriving at The Showgrounds.

“It was massive to get the winner,” he added.

“It was one of them ones where we just had to keep digging in.

“Their goal came through a mistake from Deansy but it’s one of them ones as he has dug out of a hole so many times this year.

“You could hear it from the sideline, you could hear it amongst the players that it was simply about digging Deansy out because he’s done it for us all season.

“It was big to get that as you don’t want him going home and thinking that he’s cost the team two points.

“We’re built around clean sheets and he’s been a massive part of that.

“Obviously we didn’t keep one tonight but it’s a massive three points.

The visitors would have two great chances to take the lead in the first-half and Kane stressed that Warrenpoint, just like Cliftonville, have all the qualities to punish teams in the Danske Bank Premiership.

“Warrenpoint are fighting for every single point in this league, they are trying to stay up and they came here and made it very difficult,” he continued.

“It was well documented on Saturday that we were poor and got punished for that.

“Cliftonville is a top side but there were areas that we just weren’t on it and they’re a side that if you’re not on it, they’re going to punish you.

“The performance tonight was probably okay in the second-half, it wasn’t great in the first-half.

“However, the main thing is getting the three points.”

Coleraine make the journey to Milltown on Saturday to face the same opponents and Kane remarked that it will be a totally different contest between the two sides.

“It doesn’t affect the preparations because it’s probably a completely different game,” he concluded.

“When we’re at home, we are playing on the 3G surface, whereas when you go down there you’ve got a two hour travel and play on a grass pitch.

“It is probably not the best of pitches at this time of the year so your game plan completely changes.

“We know what we have to do, we’ll work on it and we’ll have a game plan set to hopefully get another three points.”