Scoreline harsh on my players: OK
ORAN Kearney believes the 4-1 defeat to Cliftonville was a harsh scoreline on his players at Solitude…
The Bannsiders would leave north Belfast empty-handed as goals from Ronan Hale, Shea Kearney, Sam Ashford and Rory Hale did the damage for the hosts.
Coleraine did manage to pull a goal back through Jamie McGonigle for 2-1 just after the break, but any hopes of a comeback were quickly extinguished as Ashford found the bottom corner two minutes later – before Hale’s 90th-minute curler completed the scoring.
The visitors did create several chances throughout the 90 minutes but Kearney remarked the hosts were more ruthless in front of goal.
“They took their chances, we didn’t. I think we created quite a bit today,” he said.
“I think after a couple of weeks ago obviously getting the win and we’ve had a couple of great weeks at training, ideally you’re hoping to come here today and kick on.
“It’s an unfortunate mistake from Rory for the first goal and I think that for everything that the players have been through in the past few months it’s not the ideal start.
“To their credit, I thought we pushed on and I thought their goalkeeper to be fair pulled off three or four important saves.
“There were a couple towards the end of the first half in particular and then a couple in the second.
“Even for our goal, I think, he pulled off a very good save and we’re just fortunate that Jamie’s in the right place.
“Taking all that into consideration, I don’t think it was a 4-1 game.
“I think we’ve created – and it’ll be interesting to see the numbers – but I thought we created as much as Cliftonville but it’s about putting the ball in the back of the net and today they’ve done that better than us.”
McGonigle’s second goal in as many games brought the Stripes back into the contest but the two-goal cushion was quickly restored by Cliftonville as Ashford profited from a long-throw.
Kearney added: “It was a turning point.
“I still thought we moved on and still created chances after that but we were looking at the big momentum swing after Jamie’s goal and we spoke at half-time about it having the look of that type of day where, although it was 2-0, we still felt we were well in the game.
“We knew at half-time that the next goal was important and we urged the players, number one, to hang in the game long enough and, number two, that if it comes, it comes to us.
“The bonus of getting it so early is brilliant but to concede in the way we do just minutes later just bursts the ball again.”
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