FOOTBALL: Injury worries
ALL the talk in England this week has been about the clubs sending their injured players to Serbia for the revolutionary new horse placenta treatment.
Unfortunately Coleraine boss David Platt doesn't have that luxury as he sweats on the fitness of several players ahead of this Saturday's Carling Irish Premiership clash with Newry City.
Keeper Davey O'Hare is struggling with a long term achilles injury and both Howard Beverland and Eunan O'Kane limped out of the draw with Institute last weekend. Beverland told Times Sport after the clash at Drumahoe that he felt his hamstring tighten up and thought it better to come off immediately.
"I just felt my hamstring tightening midway through the second half," said Howard. "Unfortunately with these types of things there's not much you can do once you feel it going. I just though it would be better to go off as soon as possible and not tear it completely.
"At the minute it's hard to say just how long I'll be out for."
Teenager Aaron Canning replaced Beverland to make his league debut for the Bannsiders in what was a frustrating day for his boss David Platt. The injuries were bad enough, but Platt was doubly frustrated as his side let their lead slip deep into injury time.
"We switched off for a second in the last two minutes of the game and it's cost us the win," Platt told Times Sport.
"It's a tough place to come, it's their home and they do all they can to defend it like we do it The Showgrounds. If you win your home games you're doing well, so they've dropped two points today. They're down at the wrong end of the table at the minute and they are scrapping for everything and it showed with how they approached the last 10 minutes or so.
"They bombarded us throwing on another big attacker and pushing their centre halves up. But we should have shown a little bit of craft and kept the ball better, but we didn't. Again that shows a bit of inexperience on our part.
"We're still unbeaten in five games in the league and we are on as good a run as anybody. So it's pleasing that we kept that going but I'm disappointed that we didn't take the three points."
Again the Bannsiders had to battle the conditions as well as 'Stute and Platt was pleased with the quality of goals his side produced.
"We scored two very good footballing goals today again," he said. "We played with a lot of pace with good passing and there was three or four players involved in each goal. I thought we could have had a couple more too, we had similar opportunities but we didn't pull the trigger at the vital minute.
"I don't think we played as fluently as we had done in recent games, but that has a lot to do with the conditions. The second half was horrendous, again it seems to be like that every time we play. All in all 'Stute will feel like it's two points dropped, well so do we."
Platt will have to get his side up again for this week's home clash with Newry City who are looking for their first win since they beat the Bannsiders back in September. At the minute though the injury list is top of Platt's concerns.
"Howard's struggling now, it looks like he's pulled his hamstring," said Platt. "He indicated to us a few minutes beforehand that he felt a twinge, but we just couldn't get him off. We'll have to assess it this week in training but at the minute it's hard to say how long he'll be out for.
"Eunan's took a bit of a knock too and Davey's (O'Hare) struggled over the last few weeks with an achilles injury and he felt a twinge today again so he decided to let Kyle take the goal kicks instead. These games coming Saturday/Tuesday are starting to take their toll on us a bit.
"But we'll have to be up to the mark again on Saturday for what's going to be another difficult game at home to Newry City. I know John McDonnell is still looking for his first win since taking over from Gerry Flynn and we'll have to make sure it doesn't come against us."
Meanwhile, Coleraine will hold the first of their regular Members' Evenings in the Showgrounds Social Club, this Friday (November 27)
This is the first such evening with other events planned throughout December and will be open to all Social Club members and their guests.
For the inaugural event the Social Club will be open from 4pm and there will be drinks promotions including all pints and spirits priced 2. Entertainment for the members' evening will also be provided in the form of live music.
Future events are as follows: Saturday, November 28 - Karaoke; Friday, December 4, live music; Friday, December 11, Christmas Karaoke; Friday, December 18 - Christmas Draw.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Coleraine
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South west
