Dean Shiels focusing on the positives after Coleraine 'had to win ugly' in Loughgall triumph
Coleraine head coach Dean Shiels says his side “had to win ugly” in their 2-0 triumph against Loughgall but is taking the positives from a week where they collected seven points from a possible nine.
Goals in the dying seconds of both half’s – Jamie McGonigle’s penalty and a late Matthew Shevlin strike – helped the Bannsiders continue what has been a solid start to the new Irish League campaign and put the disappointment of Portadown’s late comeback on Tuesday behind them.
Moving into fifth place and just four points adrift of leaders Linfield, Shiels’ side have only lost one of their opening eight matches – a 2-0 defeat to Glenavon – and Saturday’s win had the added bonus of being a second clean sheet of the term.
"We take the positives after a long, tough week with seven points out of nine," Shiels told BBC Sport NI. "I thought we were superb in the first-half. I think we thoroughly deserved to go in at half-time 1-0 up.
"In the second-half it became a little bit of a grind. At times you have to give the opposition credit and I thought Loughgall turned the screw in terms of getting in our faces quicker and stopping us playing.
"We didn't give Loughgall give any chances on goal and that was a collective. There are no easy games. Loughgall are a tough team to beat and they will take points off top teams this year.
"We had to win ugly, but some of our football was really good at times. We showed character and togetherness."
The defeat extends Loughgall’s winless run to seven matches ahead of their trip to defending champions Larne on Tuesday evening, but manager Dean Smith was full of pride at his side’s performance at the Showgrounds.
"We're not too concerned about the goal at the end, you could see we were pushing forward," he said. "I thought we were outstanding today.
"We limited Coleraine to very little and we were disappointed to give the penalty away. I can't praise the players enough.
"We're just disappointed because we put so much into it not to get something from it. We deserved something from the game if you look at it as a whole. At the minute we're having nothing but bad luck. We also understand if we get performances like that then that will change."