Kearney is hungry to begin putting a fresh run together
COLERAINE will be without Eoin Bradley for this evening’s clash against Larne at The Showgrounds following the striker’s dismissal in Saturday’s defeat at Cliftonville.
It was the first time the Bannsiders had lost in 18 games and it was a result that left them trailing Linfield by 10 points at the top of the table.
But manager Oran Kearney believes his boys have still ‘some gears to go through’.
“The unbeaten run was talked about more outside of our dressing room than in it,” he said.
“Yes, it was a great run. The players have given it a real good blast since the start of December to put ourselves into the position wearein.
“Now we are in that position, I don’t want to let go of it. We certainly have a few more gears to go through.
“We want to grab what’s ahead of us and try to make it as difficult as possible for the teams in and around us in the table by winning games.
“We’ve Larne twice, Linfield twice and Glentoran three times. There are so many big, big games left. We’ve got to make sure we get right back at it again against Larne.”
On Bradley’s dismissal, Kearney added: “I thought Skinner (Bradley) was a bit hard done by in terms of his second booking, it was basically a coming together of two players. We had a couple of decisions that went against us on the day.”
Larne defender Albert Watson, meanwhile, insists that his side must start picking up wins against rivals like Coleraine if they are to meet their objectives for the season.
“Coleraine have quality in their team but we need to do better,” he said with a nod to Saturday’s disappointing draw at Glenavon.
“If we want to be in the top three, we have to win football matches and get three points on the board,” he said.
“That’s what we’ll be looking to do. We need to strive for more, strive for three points. We have to keep the confidence in the group and have to keep passing, keep showing and keep control of games.”