Scoreline didn't reflect the performance - Anderson

Editorial Department • Published 16 Feb 2012 13:00 0 Comments

Although Ballinamallard's trip to Premiership high flyers Coleraine ended in defeat, manager Whitey Anderson reckons his side played much better than the score line suggests.

"Overall I was very happy the performance and 3-0 doesn't reflect the commitment and performance that we put in," said the boss. "We played some good football on a pitch that was difficult, and we gave a good account of ourselves, even though that doesn't reflect in the score. They are a team pushing for the top four in the Premiership though, and over the course of the 90 minutes Coleraine were just that little bit better."

With Ballinamallard making all the running in the Championship and looking increasingly likely to finish in a promotion position, the draw against Coleraine had the travelling support dreaming of a cup upset. Coleraine, almost the victim of an upset in the previous round, where not underestimating their opposition however, and having watched Ballinamallard twice in recent weeks they snuffed out Ballinamallard's attacking threat, which had already been dented by the absence of strikers Andy Crawford and Steve Feeney.

"They had done their homework and had a wee bit extra on the day," admitted Whitey. "Oran Kearney admitted afterwards it was as well as they had played in a long time, and it didn't help that we lost Stevie Feeney and Andy Crawford during the week. That was definitely a big loss to our experience and guile. You miss players like that when you play big teams."

When up against a Premiership side you also need some of the games big decisions to go your way, and Whitey felt the foul which resulted in Coleraine's goal on the stroke of half time was questionable. "The second goal was ridiculous. I don't think anyone in the ground thought it was a free kick," he said. "The referee said he was holding on, but the Coleraine player was backing off thinking the free kick had gone against him. When you are playing a team like that you need the rub of the green to give yourself a bit of momentum, but that second goal killed us. At 2-0 we needed to get a goal back straight away and that just didn't happen for us."

Despite not getting on the scoresheet, the manager was far from downhearted. "There were a lot of good performances," he said. "Davy Kee in the middle of the park was outstanding and looked every bit a Premiership player and Chrisy Curran showed how good a player he is. Stevie Sheridan up front worked his socks off, and I don't think James McGrath deserved to be on the end of a 3-0 because overall he had a very good game in goals."

Despite the cup exit, Whitey reckons the squad's morale and confidence will be unaffected. "We still got a lot of positives out of the game," he said. "Even though they went 3-0 up in the second half we kept working right to the very end and kept playing football, and the boys deserve a lot of credit for that. The heads could have dropped after the third but they didn't. Maybe a few years ago that would have happened, but for the rest of the game we had as much of the play as they did. I think everyone would agree that the players gave it everything they had. The intensity of this match and the friendly against Dundalk will set us up well for the last ten games of the season."

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 16 Feb 12

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