'Embarrassed' Oran Kearney calls on Coleraine squad to deliver a performance until the full-time whistle against Crusaders after 'downing tools' in midweek defeat to Cliftonville

After Joe Gormley put the Reds in front before the interval, Kearney believes his players "downed tools" after the marksman added a second just four minutes into the second half.

A horror show would then unfold for the Bannsiders as Gormley completed his hat-trick, either side of Ben Wilson's brace, as Cliftonville ran out 5-0 victors.

"As poor a performance in a long time," Kearney said after the game.

"It's not even the scoreline to be honest.

"I'll not sleep tonight but what hurts me most is that lack of reaction and what we always get.

"One thing you always get in football is you'll go ahead sometimes, you'll go behind sometimes.

"If you're not accepting of that and not in a mindset where you can cope with that, like we coped with in our previous game vs Glentoran, to me it was a choice, we choose not to on Tuesday night.

"To me, at 49 minutes when that goal went in, we just downed tools and felt sorry for ourselves.

"I'm not hanging people out to dry but at some stage the buck has to stop not just with me but also, there's an accountability in that changing room as well."

Crusaders visit the Ballycastle Road this afternoon and will be looking to bounce back after their own midweek defeat away at Linfield.

Kearney added: "We would absolutely need to get a reaction this weekend.

"You can't predict anything in football and that's the key thing but for us I'm embarrassed in simple terms and I feel a huge level of embarrassment and shame and everything that goes with it.

"I sincerely hope every single one of those players going home tonight have a real good look in the mirror and the attitude going into Saturday has to be that we go and deliver for 94 minutes full stop, no matter what.

"To me, that's the bare minimum.

"If you're going to feel sorry for yourself and go and mope about with that type of attitude, you couldn't pick a worse team to come up against than Crusaders.

"They'll come at us like we need to go at them.”