Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I HOLD MY HANDS UP
Healy takes the blame & his players get the credit
DAVID HEALY admitted he was to blame for Linfield’s shoddy first half display against Coleraine at Windsor Park on Saturday.
The table-topping Blues looked down and out after the vibrant visitors surged into a two-goal lead through strikes from Gareth Mcconaghie and new boy Dean Shiels.
But just when it appeared the Bannsiders were about to blow the Premiership title race wide open, Healy’s boys went to work.
They roared back in dramatic style, scoring three times in the last 32 minutes, courtesy of goals from Josh Robinson, Niall Quinn and Kyle Mcclean.
Mcclean’s strike at the death earned a famous win and maintained the Belfast club’s six-point lead over Ballymena United at the summit.
“I take full responsibility for the carnage we created in the first half,” said Healy.
“I got the tactics totally wrong. I set us up in an attacking mode and it didn’t work.
“We changed the formation during the break and tweaked a few things. Thankfully, the boys responded and I thought their second half performance was tremendous.
“We steamrolled Coleraine and that’s not an easy thing to do because they have good players and they are a good team.
“It was a massive result. It would have been easy to go under after they scored a second goal just after halftime, but the boys stood up to the challenge.”
Healy is convinced the assistant referee guessed that Dean
Shiels’ header to make it 2-0 had crossed the line, despite goalkeeper Gareth Deane claiming he clawed the ball to safety.
“Unless he is looking directly across the line, at full speed I don’t see how he can say it was in or not,” said Healy.
“Unless he was one million percent sure, I don’t see how he can make that call.
“Our players’ reaction said it all. Some of the decisions from the officials certainly puzzled me. For me, there were too many people guessing at decisions.”
Coleraine boss Rodney Mcaree was disappointed his team took their foot off the gas when they were in such a dominant position.
“We began to overplay a little bit more when we went 2-0 up,” he said. “We stopped looking to hurt Linfield and they put us under a lot of pressure. Collectively and individually, we’ve got to take responsibility.
“We needed a little bit of leadership and a little bit of drive would have maybe helped us see the game out. It was a tough defeat to take.”