Coleraine players weren't thrilled by earning late draw at Linfield, says Ruaidhri Higgins after Matthew Shevlin cancels out Matthew Fitzpatrick's opener

It’s a game that had everything – spectacular goals, yellow cards, dismissals and flying tackles. But the result kept Higgins’ men flying high at the top of the League table.

Linfield took the lead in the second half when striker Matthew Fitzpatrick’s spectacular scissors kick flew past goalkeeper Aidan Harris.

It was an advantage David Healy’s men held until added time when Coleraine substitute Oliver Devlin produced a piece of magic to set up Shevlin and his finish was emphatic.

But the drama was far from over because as the clock ticked down, Linfield were reduced to nine men having defensive pair Ethan McGee and Ben Hall dismissed – both picked up second yellow cards from referee Jamie Robinson.

Higgins was far from happy with his team’s performance for the first hour or so, but relieved to see Shevlin hit the net late on.

“Shevvy is the man you want on the end of a chance like that,” he said. “He did what he has done for many years, put the ball in the net.

“He could have had another one or two, but given our first 65 minutes, we’ll take the point and move on.

“Young Ollie did tremendously well to set up the chance, he produced a piece of magic when needed. He’s a special talent.

“To come to the home of the champions and to show that level of ability and bravery, was a credit to him.”

Higgins, however, was left to ponder why his boys were so out of sorts for the first hour.

“No one was thrilled to bits in the dressing room at the finish, coming to Windsor Park and getting a point – absolutely not,” he moaned. “That’s not the mentality or the culture that we want to create.

“I want this team to come to Windsor Park, the Oval, Inver Park or Solitude and be the dominant team for 90 minutes. That’s where we must strive to get go.

“We didn’t do that for the first 65 minutes and we got punished. Once we got over that hurdle, we began to play the way we have been playing, the shackles came off. And, when we did get the equaliser, we should have scored a couple more.

“We played for the last half hour the way that I want us to play.

“The message is, we don’t have to work as hard as we did for the last half hour, if we deal with the first 60 minutes better.”

Linfield boss David Healy was puzzled whey his team took their foot off the gas after being so impressive for the first hour.

“I was concerned in the final 25 minutes or so,” said the former Northern Ireland international striker. “Yes, Coleraine came at us, but we didn’t retain possession the way we should have.

“We needed to be a little bit braver on the ball. We forced Coleraine into a lot of errors for the first hour but that then stopped.

“It was frustrating. I thought our shape and our performance levels were good. Tactically the players were good.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t sustain the levels required when we took the lead.

“This is the most competitive League that we’ve ever been involved in, but I felt it was two points that got away from us against potential champions.

“In the worst possible scenario, we could have lost the game. Had we lost it, in my opinion, it would have been an injustice.”