Coleraine boss Oran Kearney fuming after Institute loss

Coleraine manager Oran Kearney was annoyed after his side’s disappointing loss at lowly Institute.
Coleraine manager Oran Kearney.Coleraine manager Oran Kearney.
Coleraine manager Oran Kearney.

The Bannsiders were out fought and didn’t have their first shot on target until 79 minutes, much to Kearney’s frustration.

“It takes a performance to get a result and, yes the result is disappointing, but more than anything I think the lack of standard in the performance was horrible,” he explained.

“I said to the boys after the game, if you’re a tourist and you’re coming over to watch the team who are top of the table against the team in 11th, I dread to think what they would go away thinking or saying.

“It’s been a disappointing couple of weeks. We got the result at Carrick last week that we had to dig deep for, the Warrenpoint performance was poor and today was just as bad if not worse.”

Kearney was also disappointed that his players didn’t repond properly after Shaun Leppard’s opening goal.

“I keep saying to the players, we’ve had a great run of form and everything has been going well and we have come through a bit of adversity, but the first bit of adversity we faced today – conceding from a set piece, which happens against any team - shouldn’t throw an absolute grenade onto the pitch with the quality of player we have and the experience we have.

“There’s a good 10 or 15 minutes between the goals, and for the second I won’t cast down on Chris (Johns) in any way because he has kept us in many games over the years. It’s just a freak one. My mindset straight away is that at least it’s the first half and we still have 60 or 70 minutes to turn it, but it’s the lack of reaction. I don’t think their keeper had a huge amount of saves to make today.

“They’re basic things that you can analyse a game of football with – effort being one, and how busy the opposition goalkeeper is. For me, particularly today I don’t remember him making many saves, maybe one.”

The former St Mirren gaffer questioned his players attitude.

“We’ve had quite a big conversation after the game for 20 or 30 minutes,” he added.

“For not being a big squad, we’ve had a settled team that played the majority of the first part of the season and we’ve picked up a few aches and pains and suspensions as part of that. To be fair the players who came in and got a chance, for me, haven’t grabbed it the way they should be. That’s disappointing at this point in time, and the only other thing can be attitude.

“I’ve said it to them and I may as well say it here, I’ve warned them for weeks that the minute in football that you start to believe your own hype is dangerous.

“Even when we started well or went top of the league, the team talk stayed the same – don’t dare go soft or start to believe what people are saying. The minute you do that you ease off the pedal mentally and physically, and for me that’s what it looked like. I’m at a point where I’m trying to look for reasons why.”