Dean Shiels explains sub call on Coleraine signing he predicts 'will be a big player for us'
Dean Shiels set aside frustration at a single point as reward to instead celebrate Coleraine “together as a group” on the way to a last-gasp draw.
Dungannon Swifts held control off Tomas Galvin’s first-half strike until the closing moments of added time when Matthew Shevlin sparked away celebrations with his close-range equaliser.
Coleraine head coach Shiels offered praise for his players’ resilience, despite issues with a point apiece as the sole outcome.
“It was a great pass from Dean Jarvis,” said Shiels on the equaliser. "We forced their keeper into six or seven good saves and we kept knocking on the door."
He added: “At times when you think it might not be your day you can feel sorry for yourselves.
"But we kept going and that’s the resilience.
“We’re a new team, we’re a new group and we’re learning about the group at the moment.
“We’re learning what character do we have. I think we need to keep improving in that regard but we are together as a group.
“We’re fighting for each other.”
Shiels considered the share of the spoils “the least we deserved”.
“Coming away and on reflection on it we’re massively disappointed not to win the game in terms of possession, territory and chances created,” said Shiels. "We try and prepare every game where we can create as many chances as we can and stop our opponents creating chances and I think we did that today.
"I think it’s been the story of the last five games.
“We’ve been really strong and some games we’ve had nothing to show for it but today a point was the least we deserved.”
Levi Ives signed for Coleraine from Larne on Thursday and lined out for his debut over the weekend – but came off on 82 minutes.
“Levi? He was cramping up,” said Shiels. “He’s had a really tough schedule recently but he was superb.
“First half he was dynamic, getting forward, putting crosses in, dealing with one v ones.
"Everything we wanted from him and that’s why we brought him to the club.
"He’s gonna be a big player for this club.
"I think as a whole our performance was really good today but massively disappointed not to win.”