Match Reaction

Final will keep us motivated – OK

COLERAINE boss Oran Kearney hailed his side’s patience as they reached the final of the BetMcLean League Cup last night…

The Bannsiders would seal their spot in the decider for a second successive time as Matthew Shevlin (3), Conor McKendry, James McLaughlin and Jamie Glackin all netted in a 6-1 win against Warrenpoint Town.

Kearney insists he couldn’t have asked for any more from his players as they face Cliftonville in the final on a date to be confirmed in the New Year.

“We are delighted with the result,” he told Coleraine TV.

“People will say and you heard it before the game that ‘it’s Warrenpoint and they’re bottom of the league and everything else’ but I said to the players before kick-off that a Cup semi-final is a Cup semi-final.

“They are solely about winning and getting into a final and it was nice how we done it with a really good performance.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect the game to pan out that way.

“I know Warrenpoint in recent weeks have been really hard to beat and have played with a deep 5-4-1 formation and frustrated teams, with being dangerous on the break.

“We saw snippets of that in the first-half in relation to the sporadic attacks that they had which caused us a few problems and scares.

“Overall, to a man, I couldn’t have asked for any more as I thought the boys were outstanding.”

The Stripes would make the breakthrough after just six minutes as McKendry’s delightful ball was coolly dispatched by Shevlin.

Kearney reinforced the importance of grabbing the first goal of the contest and was pleased to see his troops being ruthless in front of goal.

“It was a great finish, particularly with a low block like that, to score that first goal is very important,” he added.

“The quality of the goal was outstanding, it was a great ball from Conor and a great finish by Matthew.

“It was great at that time to get us up and running.

“With the way that they lined-up, we were always going to dominate a lot of the ball.

“It’s easy to get frustrated when that happens because there were a lot of the periods in the first-half where we moved the ball from side to side.

“It was hard to create opportunities as there were just a lot of bodies in the way, so I thought we managed the ball very well and we didn’t get impatient.

“We stayed patient, we waited for our opportunities and when the game opened up we were clinical.”

Coleraine were able to introduce James McLaughlin from the bench following injury with the striker comfortably dispatching a fifth goal of the night and Kearney is hopeful that his players can now kick on in the league.

“It was nice to have extra bodies back on the bench,” he stressed.

“We don’t shout and scream about injuries but we have had a crux of 13 or 14 players that have played a lot of football this season.

“It’s nice to get the likes of James back and Curtis isn’t too far away either.

“We are starting to get to that point where we are getting bodies back which is good as we head into the Christmas period.

“We are delighted to reach the final.

“We can shelve that now and we will hopefully kick on in the league.

“It’s a good incentive and it keeps everybody motivated heading into the second half of the season.”