Kearney in warning to his men after rare defeat
“IF we’re in and around that level of performance, Carrick will chin us next week.”
Those were the words of Oran Kearney after his 52-game unbeaten run as Coleraine boss was ended in spectacular fashion by Premiership bottom side Warrenpoint Town on Saturday.
The Bannsiders failed to work out a gritty and compact Point side who were clinical when they got their chances and a second-half double from Alan O’Sullivan plus Brandon Doyle’s late third proved more than enough to knock Kearney’s men off the top of the table with Jamie Glackin’s equaliser all they had to show for a poor day at the office in south Down.
“We’ve never beaten a drum in there and we’ve never discussed making it... I don’t know how many games it is. Am I disappointed now because the run has ended? No, I’m disappointed because we’ve dropped three points t hat s hould have been within our grasp,” said Kearney (right).
“Where these three points could take us
WARRENPOINT TOWN: Byrne, Cowan, Wallace, McVeigh, Bennett (Doyle 16), Watters, Young (McCann 90), Mullen, Watters, O’Sullivan, Forde Subs not used: Turker, O’Kane, Murnaghan COLERAINE: Johns, Kane, Canning, Douglas (McGuckin 80), Traynor, Jarvis, Lowry, Doherty (Parkhill 70), Bradley (Maciulaitais 59), McLaughlin, Glackin. Subs not used: Gallagher, McConaghie, Gawne, Whiteside
Man of the match: Mullen
Match rating: 7/10
Referee: Keith Kennedy
in a matter of months’ time, I don’t know and that’s the overriding emotion at this time.
“It’s never been preserving a run, it’s never been about setting whatever records are out there. It’s been about trying to get three points on the board every time. “For as well as we’ve done in recent weeks and picked up threes and threes and threes, we’ve handed back one of those sets of three, which is disappointing.
“That’s t he overriding thing, we have been picking up those three points, we have had t hat r ut hl e s s nes s and maybe over t he last few weeks we’ve carried the
odd player here and there, but we just had too many passengers.
“I watched Carrick against Crusaders, they gave Crusaders their fill. If we’re in and around that level of performance, Carrick will chin us next week.
“We’ve lost three points and only three points at this moment in time.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re part of a race that we want to remain a part of. But we’ve dropped three points and the important thing is to get back on the horse.”
A scrappy first half gave way to an incident-packed second with O’Sullivan converting a penalty a minute in.
Glackin levelled almost instantly after being played in by Lyndon Kane before O’Sullivan beat the offside trap to put the
Point 2-1 in front 15 minutes from time before Doyle capped off a brilliant day for the hosts.
Barry Gray, able to celebrate his first win and first points in his second stint as manager at Milltown, said: “The big period for me was after Coleraine equalised, it would have been easy for us to roll over when they scored. That character we showed in that period, that’s massive.”