Kearney left disappointed as the Bannsiders let the lead slip again

Twice the Bannsiders led against Portadown at The Showgrounds, but just after the hour mark they found themselves 3-2 down, much to Kearney’s disappointment.

“Unfortunately that has happened to us a few times this season,” he told Times Sport after the game. “We have worked hard to get ourselves into a good position but end up with nothing to show for our efforts.

“We’ve made a big focus at the club in recent weeks about managing games correectly when we get ourselves into certain situations. We came in 2-1 up at half time and we expected the boys to really kick on in the second half and it’s very frustrating as we didn’t do that. For me we looked like a different team in the second half than we did in the first, yet we should have magnified our efforts after the break and really kicked on.

“I wanted us to play all our football in their half after the break and and force Portadown on to the back foot like we did in the first.

I questioned the lads after the game why we went out and changed our game plan from tactics which had worked in the first half.”

The result brought Coleraine’s recent six-game unbeaten run in the league to an end.

“Every game is a new one and for me today was just the next opportunity for us to pick up another three points and I think if we had delivered the performance and attitude we had shown in recent weeks we would have had enough to get a result,” said Kearney.

“You can’t ease off the pedal against teams like Portadown because if you have lapses they will punish you.

“I don’t really remember too much about our goals, obviously there was a couple of skirmishes in their box, they probably weren’t for the purists. But if you get the ball in the box you feed off the second balls and get shots off.

“Credit to the lads they got their shots on target and got the rewards for it.”