McAree: ‘We didn’t do enough in the final third’

COLERAINE boss Rodney McAree reflected on yesterday’s derby day defeat to Ballymena United…

A solitary first-half strike from Leroy Millar was enough to separate the two sides on Warden Street as the Bannsiders fell to a defeat.

Speaking to colerainefc.com, boss McAree believes his side didn’t do enough in the final third of the pitch.

“My immediate reaction is one of disappointment because we haven’t got a result,” he said.

“It’s a derby, you want to get a result in it, you obviously want to win it, and we haven’t done that, so it’s extremely disappointing.

“I don’t think there were many clear cut chances throughout the game, Ballymena created a couple in the second-half when we went a little gung-ho.

“I thought we done reasonably well in the first-half up to a point, played some good stuff up to a point, but our quality in the final third just wasn’t good enough.

“First-half we didn’t get players close enough to Jamie McGonigle and in the second-half whenever you make the changes you do and you end up going a little bit more direct, it probably didn’t help us.”

McAree was left frustrated with the lack of clear cut opportunities in the second-half and believes the supply to the strikers wasn’t good enough.

“We didn’t create enough chances in the second-half,” he added.

“We had a couple of efforts from longer range in the first-half through Jamie McGonigle, one in particular that forced a great save from Ross Glendinning.

“Players have got to be ready coming on the pitch, players have got to be prepared to come on the pitch and players have to make sure that they respond.

“The substitutions we made possibly didn’t help us a lot and we didn’t get enough quality into the box for them to capitalise on it.”

Despite looking for a first win from the post-split fixtures, McAree insists he can take positives out of the three games so far.

“It’s about preparation for the European play-offs,” he concluded.

“Can you take positives out of the last three games? I think we can out of each game.

“Today up until the final third I thought we played some good stuff and got into some great areas, so we have to take the positives out of that.

“However we haven’t scored and we haven’t taken anything out of the game, so that’s a massive negative.

“Everybody will be hurt and disappointed but it’s important we pick ourselves up and go on Tuesday night.

“Anyone who doesn’t pick themselves up for Tuesday night won’t be a part of it.”