OK keen to regroup

COLERAINE boss Oran Kearney spoke to the club’s media channel after yesterday’s defeat to Portadown at Shamrock Park…

The Bannsiders would leave County Armagh empty handed as second-half goals from Adam Salley and Harry Anderson did the damage on a windy day.

Kearney remarked that it’s been a “tough week” for him and his players after the agonising defeat to Cliftonville in the BetMcLean League Cup final.

“It’s a frustrating one,” he said.

“It’s been a tough week, we make no bones about that in relation to Sunday and the manner of it.

“It’s just not what happened in terms of the result, but the injuries we have picked up as well left us in a place where we are patched today.

“In saying that, to be fair to the players I thought for the first 60, 65 minutes in particular, we couldn’t do anything more bar putting the ball into the back of the net.

“We’ve created quite a few chances, particularly in the first-half, but I think on days like today with the conditions like they are, it’s very important that you take some of those chances.

“We don’t take that and then we leave ourselves open for a sucker punch.”

Due to results elsewhere, and barring a footballing catastrophe, Coleraine secured their berth in the top six once the campaign splits next weekend.

Kearney acknowledged that the next five to six weeks are going to be important as his troops have one final crack at securing European football next season.

“I think the key thing for us is that we’ve qualified for top six and that’s done and dusted,” he continued.

“It allows us to, in simple terms, to regroup and we’ve got to plan out the rest of the season accordingly to try and peak again.

“We have to ready for after the 38th game because we’ve a final chance of European football, and with that, we have to win two games of football.

“For us, it’s very much trying to get football into people who need it like Adam Mullan, whilst on the other side, there are guys who have probably overplayed as well.

“Ideally we have to manage that in the next week or two and we will have a spare week in relation to Irish Cup, so we’ll get some extra work done to try and get sharpened up again and make sure we peak at the end of the season.”

The Stripes were without several key names for yesterday’s clash through injury as Coleraine face the long trip to Warrenpoint Town on Tuesday night.

“I’m not sure when we can expect them back,” he concluded.

“Shevy probably not, I think it’s a concussion so with the protocols and all that now it is a waiting game.

“Glacks’ ankle is up very high as well.

“We have two or three ones there that were on the bench that weren’t really available for us.

“It’ll be really tough against Warrenpoint because of the injuries we’ve picked up and I think we’ll have a couple of suspensions as well.

“Yes, it’s going to be tough but we’ve got to go there and you know we can only play 11 players, so it’s important that they stake a claim for what they want to do at the end of the season.”