‘We go again’ says Kearney after the Bannsiders unbeaten run is ended

Jimmy Callacher’s second half header sent the Bannsiders’ crashingto their first defeat in almost three months.

It was a game which Coleraine probably didn’t deserve to lose.

They had several good chance to find a goal for themselves. But in the end they had to take the defeat on the chin.

“All good things do come to an end but I’m disappointed in the defeat,” said Kearney.

“In the first half, we had a really good period and it was disappointing to come in at half-time 0-0.

“The longer it went on, and in the first half in perticular, with a wee bit of a breeze at our back, I was thinking to myself we need to be going in 1-0 up at the break.

“You need to strike when you’re on top when you come to places like this to give you something to hold on to.

“Linfield are always dangerous from set pieces and before the game we did talk about that area. It was disappointing with the manner of the goal we conceded.

“The stats show Linfield are a team which scores a huge amount of goals from set pieces. They are a physically strong team in that area, so we knew we had to be strong in that area.

“That’s what is disappointing about conceding from a corner.

“We didn’t cause the same danger from our corners, but that’s the team we are, and that’s the team they are, and it’s a set piece which has decided it on the day.”

The defeat didn’t dampen the Bannsiders Christmas Party on Saturday night. Kearney insisted on everyone enjoying themselves despite their unbeaten run coming to an end.

“It’s reward for the last two months,” he said. “This marks a closure on those two months, we won’t be looking back on it for future reference.

“I remember we beat Cliftonville a few years ago to end their 15-game winning run, but they immediatley went on another double figure run and that’s our target.

“We start again at training on Tuesday night.