“Punished for lapses” – OK

COLERAINE boss Oran Kearney admits the second penalty miss yesterday afternoon was “a momentum swing” as they drew 1-1 with Ballymena United…

The Bannsiders would take the lead from the spot through Lyndon Kane but the full-back failed to make it a brace as he hit a second spot kick over the crossbar just before the half hour mark.

However, United would equalise soon after as Caolan Loughran headed home from Michael Place’s corner kick, with both teams striking the woodwork after the break.

Despite not gaining any significant ground on the teams above them in the standings, Kearney was pleased with aspects of his side’s performance.

“There are big parts of the performance we’re very pleased with,” he told Coleraine TV.

“We just got punished for wee lapses and not being ruthless enough.

“Lyndon will hold his hands up to that, the second penalty is a bit of a momentum swing as we were going really well at that point in time, it looks like were really in the ascendancy and the non conversion of that gives them a shot in the arm for ten minutes were they get their goal and levels the game up again.

“A frustrating day from that point of view but a big part of the performance we’ve got to be happy with.

“It’s brilliant play from James to get in, he lifts the ball over the ‘keeper and you could question mark a red card with it being a very easy goalscoring opportunity as if he makes contact, James walks the ball into the net.

“It still doesn’t matter from a missed penalty point of view because the ‘keeper had no saying in that because we didn’t hit the target.

“It’s a lapse from a set piece that gets them back in the game.”

The game was played with a strong wind in both halves but Kearney was delighted to see his players still create chances to grab the decisive third goal of the content as Curtis Allen had a goal disallowed for a close offside call.

“We’re getting used to it, it’s been surreal,” Kearney continued.

“I’ve said to somebody this morning it feels like over the last five or six weeks all we do is play in gale force winds either going across the pitch, diagonally or straight up and down.

“There’s a way of trying to maximise that when you have it then you get something with it but also there’s a way of playing into it and I thought we were better with the wind than we’ve been in some other games.

“Sometimes the wind can kill you where the ball continuously rolls out of play or you overhit it.

“I thought we were really good with the ball, we had a lot of good crosses and a lot of good opportunities with it.

“Into the wind, it was very stop start in the second half but once we found our momentum, I thought we created some really good chances.

“Matthew’s hit the bar, we would query Curtis Allen’s offside towards the end but whilst we had opportunities to win it, we’ve had a fantastic save by Gareth to make sure we didn’t lose it.”

Coleraine enter March with a visit of Larne to The Showgrounds on Tuesday night and Kearney has challenged his players to be more ruthless in front of goal.

“We’ve got to pick up and go again from that point of view,” he concluded.

“It’s a big week for us, even a big couple of weeks with league and cup games and everything that goes with it.

“We’re down into that business end of the season so it’s about being that wee bit more ruthless and whether it be a penalty kick, free-kick, corner-kick, or one-on-one that we find the back of the net.”