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Steven Crawford

Oran Kearney has clear objective as Coleraine bid to banish disappointments

Oran Kearney says Coleraine are determined not to let their season fizzle out again.

After losing last year's BetMcLean League Cup final the Bannsiders season nosedived before losing to Larne in the European play-offs.

Kearney's men suffered a similar fate in this term's League Cup final as they lost to Linfield before following that up with a defeat at Glenavon.

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But the Coleraine boss is hoping the goalless draw with 'Double' chasing Larne has helped them get things back on track again and ready for a big finish.

"We want to build and the key thing is we go and pick up as many points as we can between now and the end of the season," he said.

"It's really important that we get back up and are really strong in these final five games and whatever comes after that. They are all big games.

"Last year we had a poor response to losing a cup final. This year we don't want that.

"We had a load of injuries last season, meaning we were down to the bare bones.

“We didn’t pick up many points and we stumbled into the play-offs and we don’t want to do that this year.

“We want to go into a play-off with a bit of form and a few wins behind us.

“They will all be big games both home and away and it’s important we get some big performances."

The Bannsiders had to dig in against the league leaders on Saturday especially after they were reduced to ten men following Aaron Jarvis' dismissal with 25 minutes to go.

Kearney said the fighting spirit shown by his players is what he expects of them.

"I wouldn't say impressed by the players' determination after the sending off - it's more expectant to be honest," he said.

"Challenges like that we rise to and we want to rise to.

"It's not defeatist, not one of those where 'we've lost a man we'll lose the game'.

"We know we have to batten down the hatches and be really hard to beat.

"We probably had to concede them a lot more of the pitch than we wanted to but that just comes with the magnitude of the game and the territory but I thought we defended our box really well.

"Gareth Deane stepped up in the moments he's had to step up in with key saves, but overall I think we probably deserved a point."

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