MANAGER'S VIEW: Paul Owens believes Limavady United should take heart from week's work despite losing out to Coleraine
Paul Owens said he was “proud” of his players’ application after Limavady United were edged out by a solitary goal against Coleraine at The Showgrounds.
Here’s what he had to say after Joel Cooper’s goal gave Coleraine all three points.
PROUD OF THE PERFORMANCE?
"I'm very, very proud of my players and my squad.
"We don't want to get into a habit of patting boys on the back...but where we stood at 2pm at Seaview last week whenever I'm trying to do a team talk, we had no wins and trying to get them to believe that we're not far away, which I fully believe we weren't.
"It's proved to be that way as we know have six points and to come here on a Saturday evening with Stevie Lowry suspended and a couple of boys who can't play against Coleraine who've been real star performers, and to run Coleraine, like, I'm not saying we ran them close to scoring, yes, it's 1-0, and I think they fully deserve to win...but to still be within a chance and have them pinned in their box from 90 minutes to 94, just for this group, I just think it's been a really, really big week.
WHAT CAN YOU TAKE FROM IT?
“It's a real, real big effort.
"I said about momentum and trying to get a win and trying to back it up, which we did.
"I don't think leaving that changing room has broken the momentum as I think that performance is nothing but a positive for us.
DEFENSIVE DISCIPLINE:
“Aye, they were excellent, and we had a lot of legs in the team that day, and my thinking at the end of the day was, if I do what every other team does here, I'm going to get whatever other team gets here, which is nothing.
"So, tactically we had a couple of wee tweaks, and like I said before the game, our information and all our wee disciplines and all haven't changed, there's just been a wee tweak, we just tried to do something a little bit differently and maybe hit them on the break once or twice,.
"Leon (Boyd) had a bit of a chance later on, and again, this isn't me saying we should have got anything out of the game, not at all, but for our group and for what went through this week, we're only a newly promoted side to go in the Premier League is a big step up.”