Oran Kearney hoping to see his Bannsiders bounce back

Conor McMenamin’s last-gasp winner was a frustrating end for the Bannsiders at The Oval on Tuesday night.

Kearney’s men, who picked up their first win in eight against Carrick Rangers last Saturday, produced a resolute display against the high-flying hosts.

So much so that the Bannsiders boss felt it would be his charges celebrating the late win after Stephen O’Donnell had cancelled out Michael O’Connor’s opener.

But it was the visitors who were hit with the late sucker punch much to Kearney’s annoyance.

“It was frustrating,” he said. “Nobody likes to concede a last-minute winner, they are brilliant when you get them, but it’s not nice when they go against you.

“It was frustrating as I didn’t think there was a huge amount in the first half, both teams nearly cancelled each other out.

“Bar a lapse of concentration from us for their opener, otherwise 0-0 probably would have been fine at the break.

“But we stayed in the game and we flipped it around the 60 minute mark and it worked for us.

“We built up a head of steam for 15 or 20 minutes, we got our goal and to be honest we were hoping for a grandstand finish from us where we keep our foot on the pedal.

“Frustratingly we stepped off it again in the last three or four minutes and the game opened up again rather than us pushing into that area.

“We gave away a silly free kick, we didn’t win the first or second ball and we were away down the road with nothing.

“When we got the equaliser it looked like we would have a grandstand finish, and that’s the disappointing factor as it should have been us pushing on in the last few minutes.

“We should have been pressing for the winner, but we let them out two or three times and with the quality they have you always run the risk.”

After taking on second-placed Glentoran during the week the Bannsiders welcome leaders Linfield to The Showgrounds today with Kearney hoping his side can build on the positives.

“It’s been a tough period for us,” said the Coleraine boss.

“We had a good win on Saturday and a defeat on Tuesday night.

“But as I always say I’ll never question our guys’ work ethic and endeavour.

“We just have to keep working hard.

“It has been a tough week for everyone in the league with three games in seven days, but when you have the ‘Big Two’ as part of that it makes it even tougher.

“But we’ll never doubt our boys in terms of attitude and endeavour so I’m sure they’ll be ready for Saturday.

“Obviously it would be great to get a win.

“We were disappointed with the manner of the result the last time we played Linfield.

“I thought we did more than enough that day to take something out of the game.”