LEAGUE CUP FINAL: Stephen Lowry steps up to answer manager’s spot-kick call

Kearney turned to the 33-year-old during the club’s team meal and asked Lowry to shoulder the responsibility of penalty duty.

The decision by Kearney to trust Lowry’s big-match mentality delivered on the main stage against Crusaders as he slotted home from the spot a Coleraine equaliser on the way to winning the BetMcLean League Cup.

“I’m not the designated penalty taker and the last one I took was for Linfield,” said Lowry, who returned to the Bannsiders in 2018. “But Oran said to me during the pre-match bite to eat he was going to put me on them.

“I was honest and said I hadn’t taken one in a while but at the same time I was not going to shy away.

“He tested me out on the pitch before the match, asking me where I was going to put it - I said ‘bottom left’ and he said ‘that’s good enough for me’.

“So, I wasn’t going to change my mind, I hit one against Sean O’Neill in the Irish Cup quarter-finals in the exact same place and scored.

“I missed my previous penalty when at Linfield in the Irish Cup semi-finals but ended up scoring the winner against Dungannon Swifts.

“I actually missed one in training on Thursday, the goalkeeper saved it.

“I’m probably third or fourth in the pecking order but maybe Oran felt it came down to my experience.

“I said 100 per cent it was a soft penalty and probably would have been angry if given against me, but I’ll take it.

“It got us back into the game, at that stage Crusaders were in the ascendancy and played a lot of football in the first 30 minutes.

“Once we scored the penalty it gave us the lifeline.

“We probably would have taken going in 1-0 down at half-time so at 1-1 gave us confidence.”

Lowry had a few hours to embrace the penalty responsibility - a rapid timeframe when weighed up against an eight-year wait to make amends for his appearance in the previous League Cup showdown between Coleraine and Crusaders.

“It’s the one medal I didn’t have and lost this final with Coleraine as a young player in 2012 when Chris Morrow scored for Crusaders,” said Lowry. “I was marking him and had a really poor game but it turned out to be a real learning curve.

“Ever since that day across my career I would think how a real Irish League player should be tracking their man.

“It always stuck in my head how you should never leave your man as he scored the winner in an ugly 1-0 win.

“Now I’m a bit older and more streetwise.

“At 1-0 down I was nervous like any other player and thinking ‘I hope someone pulls us out’ as we’ve got big players in our team who have scored big goals this season.

“I thought it wasn’t going to be me scoring here but it’s lovely to win that medal.

“I’m delighted to win ugly - that’s the kind of performance Crusaders would have done to us over the years.

“We showed real character but Oran gives us that belief.

“Even after going 1-0 down, we never feel flustered.”