Brilliant Bannsiders have everyone talking

Great goals, a dramatic comeback and a last gasp winner. And as The Showgrounds faithful celebrated Stephen Lowry’s late, late winner people across the UK who tuned into the game were left purring at the what they had just witnessed.

Co-commentator on the night, Gerry Armstrong, said the powers that be at Sky were delighted with the offering served up by the two teams.

“My bosses at Sky were over the moon and not for the first time,” said the Northern Ireland legend at the weekend.

“They can’t wait to be back. When I was back in the studio on Tuesday all the talk was about how entertaining the game was.

“Everyone was of the same opinionand talked about how refreshing it was to see honest-to-goodness competition with physical contact.

“In other words this was football the way it was intended to be played. For sheer excitement it was hard to beat.”

The result means Coleraine have an unbeaten home record for live Sky games. Boss Oran Kearney was ecstatic at the end.

“I’m euphoric, that’s the only way to explain it,” said the Bannsiders boss at the end.

“We were at such a low conceding the equaliser so late on, particularly with the nature of the goal.

“But we are growing as a club so it was nice to see us step up one more time.

“I’m delighted for Stevie and the rest of the lads. We put in a big shift here last Tuesday night and probably deserved to go to penalties but we didn’t get it.

“You always look for your senior pros and here the likes of Stevie and Curtis Allen are our senior pros even though they are only in their early twenties.

“So I look to them to lead by example which they did tonight along with Howard Beverland, who I thought was absolutely immense.

“The last thing we wanted to do on a night like tonight in front of the camera was to be negative that’s why I went with two up.

“I’m just glad we won the battles and got our goals at the right time.

“Any goal is a good goal to me but I thought ours tonight showed what we are all about.”