Declan Devine: Coleraine win was 'a convincing performance' as Glentoran continue to march on
Declan Devine says his Glentoran players are being rewarded for their “work-ethic and application” after banking a 2-1 win against Coleraine.
The men from east Belfast have found the north coast venue a tough nut to crack in recent years but there would be no issues this time around as efforts from Jordan Jenkins and Kodi Lyons-Foster sealed the victory.
A late goal from Matthew Shevlin set up a tense finish but the Glens defence held firm to stretch their unbeaten run to 15 games in all competitions.
Devine says the strong string of results is purely down to the players as they cemented their grip on second place in the table.
"I thought it was a convincing performance and if we had taken our chances, we would have been out of sight,” he added.
"I thought there were a lot of good things in the game and of course we are disappointed with the Coleraine goal.
"It put a bit of unnecessary pressure on ourselves but it's testament to the players as their work-ethic was evident when one centre-back crossed for the other to score the second goal.
"There was a great delivery from Amos for JJ (Jordan Jenkins') goal which was a great header.
"From open play we had one or two chances that I'd have liked us to have taken but we don't have the best of records here and it's a tough venue to come to.
"We're delighted we have picked the three points up, we can enjoy our weekends now and get ready for another game down this neck of the woods at Ballymena on Tuesday, which will again be every bit as difficult.
"This is another one chalked off and I'm delighted for the players because they are working hard behind-the-scenes and giving everything for the shirt.
"You see what it means to the fans and the players and the reaction together...we have to keep building on that.”
Glentoran’s busy period of fixtures continues next week as they visit Ballymena United on Tuesday night, before making their way to Solitude to lock horns with Cliftonville on Friday.
On that big double-header, Devine stated: "Three games in a week...but we are resilient, we have great strength in depth and we will have to make changes as the week goes by.
"I have full trust in everybody, there's still a few important players to come back, Josh Kelly and James Singleton are out for the season - but we have Paddy McClean and Aaron Wightman who are good players to come back into the mix which will only strengthen us in the coming weeks.
"The application and willingness to go that extra yard tonight was really important.
"We played some good football at times but in this league you have to dig in and work hard and this group of players deserve credit because they did that.
"We know Ballymena have a lot of top, top quality players and we watched the game last week against Linfield and saw how unlucky they were not to hold out at the end.
"We have absolutely no doubt it's going to be a tough week for us away to Ballymena and away to Cliftonville."