'It's unknown territory': Manager of the Month Oran Kearney on challenges of leading Coleraine through packed schedule

Bannsiders boss admits game-by-game decisions are a challenge

Top boss: Coleraine boss Oran Kearney receives NIFWA’s January Manager of the Month award

Ian Callender

February 05 2021 11:00 AM

Oran Kearney expects factors outside football to dictate the length of the Danske Bank Premiership season as clubs continue their hectic schedule to complete it on time.

The Coleraine boss is in the middle of a fixture list which has given his side 13 games in seven weeks, but highlights the fact that not all clubs are equal in being able to cope with the congested programme of matches.

"If you put your hat on Larne, Glentoran or Crusaders, the full-time sides, they have more time for recovery sessions and it shouldn't affect them as much," he reasons.

"With part time players, it is harder. From the Dungannon game (on January 23) we have 13 games in 43 days, which is a big ask.

"Normally you stick with a winning team, going Saturday to Saturday, but now you don't want to pick up injuries so you have to make sure you use players as carefully as possible.

"The hardest bit was coming back from the (Covid) two-week break and then it was straight into three games in seven days. You are just hoping players don't pick up injuries, particularly muscular injuries.

"I don't ever remember in my Irish League career, as a player or manager, playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, so it's unknown territory and why you have to be careful from a personnel point of view.

"The number of games (left in the season) will be dictated from outside football, by what's happening in the community and what's happening in the country."

Kearney is also grateful that he has a 22-man squad to call on and has been able to rotate his players, even during last month's run of six consecutive victories which sees him this morning named as the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Manager of the Month.

"In a normal season, we would run with a 20-man panel and at the end of January you can offload some, because we normally would have played 24-25 games and only have about 13 games left, a third of the season, plus the Irish Cup," he adds.

"This year has been the opposite, after not starting until mid-October we played hardly any games before Christmas, but if the season goes the distance, which nobody knows yet, we still have 23 league games to play.

"So in this (transfer) window, you were not just trying to keep players but trying to add players, and we have 22-23 players, which we've never had before. But it is needs must because of the amount of midweek games for the foreseeable future. So it's definitely been strange and something we have to get used to."

Coleraine's winning run came to an end on Tuesday night with Paul O'Neill's late equaliser for Cliftonville, and Kearney admits that, although they extended their unbeaten run and consolidated fourth position in the table, the 86th minute goal felt like two points dropped.

"It didn't feel like a draw, it felt like a defeat," he reflects.

"The guys stuck to their task in the second-half and it was disappointing to drop points, especially the freakish nature of the goal, having held out for 41 minutes. It was a quiet dressing room afterwards."

Tomorrow, Coleraine host Portadown, looking to follow-up their 3-0 victory at Shamrock Park in October, and Kearney will once again ring the changes to his line-up.

"Once again, there's no rest, it's just a case of getting the batteries charged, have a good training session and we go again," he says.

'It's unknown territory': Manager of the Month Oran Kearney on challenges of leading Coleraine through packed schedule

Bannsiders boss admits game-by-game decisions are a challenge

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