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Coleraine eye derby double

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Coleraine F.C. Chairman Hugh Wade receives a donation from Friends of Coleraine Football Club presented by FCFC Vice-Chair Aaron Mullan. LDR07-22s

COLERAINE hope to inflict a second league defeat on Ballymena in the space of 11 days when the two sides meet at Ballymena Showgrounds on Saturday.
New Bannsiders boss Oran Kearney will also hope to extend the unbeaten start to his tenure to four games and more importantly pick up three vital points that would see them move to within one point of the sixth place Braid men in the Carling Premiership table.
The visitors are, however, not without quite a few injury concerns. Already hampered by injuries, more were to come in the 1-1 draw against Portadown on Monday night. Central defender Kyle McVey was ruled out for the rest of the season after breaking a bone in his foot, while Alan Canning suffered a broken nose from an elbow to the face and Johnny Watt picked up a hamstring injury. Leon Knight and Darren Boyce both played the full 90 minutes despite carrying injuries themselves.
Coleraine showed character to fight back from 1-0 down, the first time they have done so this season, and take a share of the spoils when a brilliant individual effort from Stephen Carson levelled the game, as well as holding on with 17 minutes left after Gareth Tommons was shown a red card.
“Out of the three games I've been in charge for, I'd probably say that's the one I've taken most pleasure out of," Kearney said.
“At half time I was a little disappointed as I thought we showed them a bit too much respect and it took a moment of quality from Stephen to bring us back on level terms.
“But after the break, up until the sending off, we really impressed ourselves on them, really got about them and created a few chances. I'm really happy from that side of things.
“In this league, it's not all about playing good football. In my experience, you have to be able to play with your backs to the wall and we showed that and I'm really pleased with that and the players are too. In many ways it almost felt like the win because we had to show that we could dig in and it's nice to know that you have that in your locker."

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