Naivety frustrates OK

COLERAINE boss Oran Kearney admits yesterday’s defeat to Cliftonville boiled down to a couple of minutes of “madness”…

The Bannsiders would leave Solitude empty handed as Ryan Curran’s quick-fire double after the break sealed a 2-0 win for the hosts.

Speaking to the media after the game, Kearney acknowledged that the manner of the opening goal left him frustrated.

“The first half as an away performance, we created a couple of problems for ourselves, but I felt we were quite offensive and we had as many attempts on goal as they had,” he said.

“It was probably that slightly cagey affair that you expected it to be from an away side into quite a stiff breeze.

“You know, I was quite content at half-time.

“We spoke at half-time about the first five or ten minutes of the second half, making sure that we got on top and pinned them down and really had a go with the wind and ideally as well to get shots away.

“The surface was wet and the breeze was quite strong so we wanted to have a real go at it.

“Just so frustrating in relation to, it was nearly like that the last day up here at the start of the season where it was two or three minutes of madness.

“Today was exactly the same and it’s so unlike us.

“What we also spoke about at half-time was keeping the pitch small, making sure that we didn’t leave spaces.

“The first goal that they create – people can say what they want about Gareth and I’ll defend him to the hilt.

“Yes, it’s an error of judgement from him in the final aspect of it but how the ball reaches that area with zero pressure in any way is beyond me.

“That’s the most frustrating part of it and it throws a bit of a grenade into things.

“They then get a second goal and you’re then forced into things against a team that’s very strong at home of trying to flip a formation, throw strikers on and whatever else to try and grab something out of the game.

“Then it turns into a game of basketball, we hit a post and put balls into the box, but to be fair to Cliftonville, they defended well.”

Deane – who was arguably Man of the Match with great saves to deny Jamie McDonagh and Joe Gormley – was described as being “top notch” by Kearney.

“The couple of errors that we made for the first goal were inexcusable and it sets us off on the wrong foot,” he continued.

“Gareth – that’s the one person I won’t entertain any negativity towards.

“We had umpteen errors made on the pitch today that will go unnoticed by people.

“When Gareth makes a mistake it generally leads to a goal.

“In 50-60 games for this club I could count on one hand the goals he has been responsible for.

“He’s a big character and I don’t need to speak to him about it.

“He’s top-notch and the only one that’ll come out without any issues from that point of view.”

The two clubs will be no strangers to each other come the end of March as they are scheduled to lock horns in the quarter-final of the Irish Cup and the final of the BetMcLean League Cup.

However, Kearney was quick to stress that yesterday’s defeat will have no bearing in three weeks’ time.

“It’s everybody else’s job to talk about the three games and everything that comes with it,” he continued.

“For us, we’d been on a little run of good form that put us within touching distance of the teams above us.

“The key thing is we want to reel those teams in.

“I wasn’t going into today’s game thinking if we win today it could have a huge impact on us in three weeks’ time or whenever it might be.

“You just want three points and take care of that business first.

“We’ll go with what we need to go with in two or three weeks’ time but we have a pile of football before and a pile of midweek games.

“There is a lot of important football to play between now and then.”

The Stripes face Warrenpoint Town in back-to-back contests this week and Kearney knows his players will have to be on it to pick up maximum points.

“We’ve played them a few times this season and it’s never easy, we’ve never had an easy game against them,” he concluded.

“When you play back to back games like that it makes it tough as well.

“Any three points in this league are hard to come by and you’ve got to be at your best.

“For us, we just can’t afford that lull at this level it’s simple – you get punished.”