Start was “detrimental” – OK

COLERAINE boss Oran Kearney admits conceding a goal so early on was a blow as they were beaten by Glentoran last night…

The Bannsiders would lose out as the Donnelly brothers netted in either half to give the Glens their first league victory on the Ballycastle Road since October 2013.

The result means Coleraine remain in sixth spot in the Premiership standings and Kearney remarked that they could ill-afford to give their visitors a head start as Ruaidhri Donnelly headed home from a corner after just four minutes.

“We are disappointed to lose the game,” he told Coleraine TV.

“We had a good win in the League Cup against Glentoran earlier in the season and we spoke before the game that there’s sadly, particularly against the top full-time sides, there’s a template of where you need to be and the levels you need to be at to get three points against them.

“Set pieces is the thing first and foremost that you would speak about where on nights like this where you want to give yourself a chance of winning the game, you’ve got to be razor sharp from that point of view.

“It’s disappointing to concede from the very first one of the game and it hits us hard and it takes us 20 or 25 minutes where we are shaky and edgy because of it.

“No disrespect but maybe against other teams in the league you can recover from that quite quick and everything else, but when you’re playing full-time sides now and the levels of quality they’ve got, the last thing they need is a head start at that point.”

The Stripes brought in Adam Mullan and Patrick Kelly for the contest, meaning they adopted a 3-5-2 formation.

Kearney remarked that the change of shape was simply about managing the squad and that they did cause their visitors problems despite the lack of a killer pass to get a goal.

“It was probably down to where you’re trying to manage players,” he added.

“James McLaughlin has come back probably ultra quick from his injury.

“We’ve had a COVID case within the club just this afternoon which sort of changed plans a bit as well.

“There’s other players there that have played bits and pieces of football but we’ve tried to go with the freshest team that we possibly have.

“Again the start kills us from that point of view because I think you could see in the last 20 minutes of the first-half and there on in, we were dangerous on the counter attack.

“Yes, we lacked that killer instinct and that killer final pass or that bit of quality to go and score a goal, but I think we’ve had a lot of good opportunities to go and get that goal and we did cause them problem going in that other direction.

“I just think the start to the game is really detrimental to that.”

Coleraine have only scored one goal in their last five Premiership assignments but Kearney acknowledged that it isn’t through a lack of effort or will.

“No, it’s not a worry, it’s just football,” he stated.

“I think the minute you start going soft and having a mindset like that, it’ll only bring you problems.

“The key thing for me is if I look at the last five games, you know Saturday was the same and tonight was the same in relation to right until the final whistle we’ve used every ounce and every bit of effort.

“I thought Lyndon and Josh were outstanding with their leadership, work ethic and how they just kept going, going and going.

“That’s the one thing I’ll never query from our guys from that point of view. It’s been sticky, it’s been tough but show me a football team or show me a football player or manager in their career that’s never gone through a little spell where it goes against you or things don’t go your way.

“It’s been a frustrating last three or four games, you could point to and look at a lot of different reasons in relation to that.

“The fact of the matter is that it’s on paper, it’s been disappointing on the points that we’ve pulled back but we’ve a lot of characters in that squad.

“We’ve been against the wall before and we’ve come out fighting, so I’ve no doubt the same group will do the same.”

The Bannsiders will finish the calendar year with a trip to Ballymena United on Monday and Kearney knows his squad have the character to bounce back in a positive fashion.

“It’s an ideal game,” he concluded.

“To me, that’s the one where you go and kick start it again and get rolling.

“I think I remember this time last year we had gone through a frustrating period and we had a last minute against Warrenpoint and then went on a crazy run after that where we slung together a pile of wins and points.

“We’ve got to show that character, we’ve got to show that fight again, pick ourselves up again and get going.”