Barry Gray still trying to take some positives

Barry Gray admitted he was expecting a tough afternoon at The Showgrounds regardless of the form of the two teams going into the game.
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Both sides came into this game with very contrasting form.

Coleraine were unbeaten since their defeat to Cliftonville at the end of August, whilst Warrenpoint Twon had failed to pick up any points since their victory over Ballymena United on the opening day.

Unsurprisingly it was the Bannsiders who came out on top as Matthew Shevlin scored in either half to seal a 2-0 win.

Warrenpoint Town manager Barry GrayWarrenpoint Town manager Barry Gray
Warrenpoint Town manager Barry Gray
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Speaking after the game Gray sais his side always find it tough when they come to the Ballycastle Road.

However, he was frustrated by the nature of the goals they gave up against Oran Kearney’s men.

“We never find it easy coming here,” said the Point boss.

“It’s not a place where we go to full of confidence about winning a game, and I don’t mean that disrespectfully to us, but it’s always tough here.

“We gifted them two goals at the worst time possible.

“If you do that against any good opposition in this league it’s too much to recover from over the course of a game.

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“There were fits and spurts throughout the game that we can take positives from.

“Where we are at the minute we’re not looking to be overly negative, but we can’t go any further down at this moment in time.

“We haven’t been progressive enough at the top end of the field.

“Whereas when you gift Coleraine two opportunities like that today, they’re not going to miss.

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“Top opposition are always going to punish you for those mistakes.

“We never get those opportunities when we’re playing against other teams.

“We need to get better at that.”

Warrenpoint find themselves rooted to the bottom of the Danske Bank Premiership at present with nine games played.

Gray says he will try and focus on the positives from the game as they bid to try and kickstart their season and hopefully pull away from the foot of the table.

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“There are positives for us particularly in the second half when we were able to play more in the advanced areas of the pitch,” said the Milltown boss.

“We’re still disappointed that some players didn’t perform as well as we would have liked, but that’s football.

“Me being massively negative at the minute isn’t going to help us in any shape or form.

“I’ve said to the players I might come across as negative at times, but we’re very realistic of where we are and what we need to do to try and push ourselves out of this position.

“We’ll take the plus points, focus on them and try and build on them going forward.”