Kane poised to return
COLERAINE boss Oran Kearney shared his views on the recent victories against Moyola Park and Limavady United…
The Bannsiders ran out 3-1 victors against Moyola Park on Thursday night, before making it two wins in as many days yesterday afternoon by defeating Limavady United 2-0 on the road.
Speaking to colerainefc.com, Kearney was pleased to see his side secure back-to-back wins in 48 hours.
“It’s been a pleasing week as it was three games in seven days which I’m not saying isn’t ideal, but you have to be careful with it,” he said.
“The schedule was planned out before I returned to the club and I think Winkie had decided on these couple of games to try and keep people on the straight and narrow.
“I have normally played on the 10th July and then on the 14th or thereabouts, so with that, you are trying to manage two games in 48 hours and that’s why we have brought in a couple of extra players to carry the load.
“I think Gareth McConaghie was the only one to play two full 90 minutes, with everyone else having a maximum of a game and a half, and that’s all you want as we have no muscular injuries and no aches or pains.
“I think Skinner was a bit dizzy after the game and he was sent to A&E with possible concussion, but apart from that, everyone else made it through and we are more than happy.”
The Bannsiders were without seven players for the two fixtures but Kearney revealed Lyndon Kane, Josh Carson and Dean Shiels will return to action in the near future.
“We had six or seven out today as Dean Shiels was missing and Josh Carson is on holidays,” he added.
“Lyndon is back in full training but we are picking our moment as Moyola on the 3G isn’t ideal, today was arguably too soon, but we will probably look at Institute this Saturday to get some minutes into him.
“Aaron Traynor is just back from holidays and he is a couple of weeks away from being ready to be introduced into games.
“Alex Gawne isn’t too far away, Dean Shiels has recovered well from an ankle knock and Josh Carson is back from a holiday next week.
“It’s about riding the waves at this time of the season in terms of holidays and all other aspects that take place, but it’s also about making sure to get enough minutes into everybody and to date, it’s been a good first week in getting through it and up to speed.”
Kearney was quick to heap praise on the fitness of James McLaughlin and the manager believes the marksman can get even more sharper ahead of the 2019-20 campaign.
“We have got the pods up and running again on Thursday night and his stats were as good as I’ve ever seen them and I told him that,” he continued.
“He believes he is in the best shape since I first brought him to the club so it’s good to see from James.
“However, I still think we can get him leaner and sharper, and the key thing is getting the minutes into him safely and trying to get him up to speed as he certainly knows where the net is.”
The manager gave an update on the future of Jamie McGonigle and once again stated that he doesn’t want to lose the services of the Dungiven man.
“It’s more about balancing the squad in terms of numbers at the minute and there were a couple who left before I came in,” he concluded.
“We are currently sitting with a squad of 24 players which was grand for the last couple of days, but moving forward we play Saturday, Saturday, Saturday.
“It will be full throttle from now and the sharing of minutes will stop from today.
“There is no situation with Jamie at the minute.
“90% of what’s happened has occurred before I was at the club and I don’t want to lose a striker who scores 20 goals a season and if we do lose him, I want it to be on our terms.
“I think a lot of things have been fast tracked and pushed through as there was no agreement in place, nothing was signed and with that, we are fully entitled to do what we want with our player.
“As it stands, Jamie is a Coleraine player and as I’ve said before, I have a good relationship with Jamie and his father and they know our stance on it and they are content with that.
“If Jamie has to stay here there will be no issue and I look forward to see those 20 goals hit the back of the net.”
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