Painful memory of defeat to Linfield spurred Coleraine to some revenge, reveals Oran Kearney

“There was quite a bit of hurt on my part about the December game and the run that it caused,” said Kearney.

“The catastrophic manner of it, the goals conceded and the final 20 minutes when we had four or five chances to draw.

“I reminded the players about the match before the game and the damage it has done for the last six weeks. It started with that performance against Linfield, let’s end it with a performance against Linfield.

“To be fair to the boys, we were on it from the word go.”

It took just 10 minutes for referee Steven Gregg to point to the penalty spot, for a handball against Ethan Devine to block a shot at point-blank range from Matthew Shevlin — a decision which the Linfield players did not agree with — and Lyndon Kane blasted Coleraine in front.

It was not until the 75th minute that the home side extended their lead. This time Shevlin did find the net with a superb finish and the gloss was put on an outstanding team performance by Jamie Glackin, who beat former team-mate Chris Johns with an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.

As Kearney said afterwards, he could have singled out any player for their 8/10 performance but he was happy to heap the praise on Aaron Jarvis, whose pass at the back post was the assist for Shevlin’s penalty appeal and it was his lung-bursting breakaway that set up Glackin 65 minutes later.

“He has had a really horrible time with injuries, so I hope he is through it but he now has the shirt and today I saw the Jarvy we signed, the Jarvy who can run the midfield for the next 10 years, and we’ve known that is inside him,” added Kearney.

“The bar is now set and it’s up to him to keep nailing that level.”

The final scoreline was a repeat of Coleraine’s last win over Linfield, more than two years ago in a League Cup Semi-Final, and this time it ended a 12-match unbeaten run for the champions.

David Healy said the defeat and flat Linfield performance — Kirk Millar’s first-half shot was Gareth Deane’s only save until the punch away from the corner which led to the third goal — was on him.

“I’ll take full responsibility,” said the Linfield boss (below), who was missing leading scorer Christy Manzinga for an unspecified reason. “I probably set ourselves up the wrong way. We were penned in first half, against the wind.

“I wanted to see more attacking play, it’s now a perfect pitch here, no excuse not to play, but it didn’t work for me.

“After the penalty, which I thought was a poor call, we were chasing the game against a good side. They are in an unfamiliar position in the League but they are better than that.

“But we are Linfield, we’ll do what Linfield does and bounce back, there are still a lot of games to play.”

COLERAINE: Deane 6, O’Donnell 7, Mullan 7, Brown 7, Kane 7, Jarvis 9, Lowry 7, Carson 7, Glackin 8 (Wilson, 90 mins, 5), Shevlin 7 (McKendry, 83 mins, 5), Allen 6 (Mitchell, 70 mins, 6).

Unused subs: Gallagher, McLaughlin, Bradley, Traynor.

LINFIELD: Johns 6, Newberry 5 (A Clarke, 77 mins, 6), Callacher 5, Roscoe-Byrne 5, M Clarke 6, Mulgrew 6, McClean 6 (McKee, 70 mins, 5), Millar 6, Fallon 7, Devine 5, Stewart 5 (Pepper, 77 mins, 6).

Unused subs: Walsh, Archer, Montgomery, McCoubrey.

Referee: Steven Gregg (Ballyclare) 5

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