Gary Hamilton: Start as you mean to go on

After morale boosting results against Glentoran and Crusaders the Lurgan Blues boss was left frustrated again on Tuesday night after a below par opening 45 minutes at Coleraine left his side chasing the game again.

Things improved after the break but with one eye on next season Hamilton has warned things have to improve.

“I was a lot happier with our second half performance, we were a lot more competitive.

“We were playing more like ourselves, and we looked like we had more desire to win.

“But I said to the boys if you start the game the way we did it’s too late by then.

“If we play like we did in the first half, then we’ll get beat by every team in this league, especially against top teams like Coleraine.

“We had a go at the players at half time and told them that it wasn’t acceptable, but we praised them for their second half performance, that’s the standard that we want.

“There have been too many games that we haven’t started.

“We have to work on that from now until the end of the season in preparation for next season.

“I don’t want another season like this in terms of displays.

“It’s another tough game coming up at Larne, the last time we went down there we got turned over 6-0.

“It was another poor half performance that night. In this league it’s very important to get the first goal.”

Larne suffered their own disappointment at the hands of Coleraine last time out as they knocked them out of the Irish Cup, but Tiernan Lynch is hoping to bounce back today.

“We’re on a good run and you can’t take that away from the players and what they’ve done,” he said.

“The players are bitterly disappointed, but the big thing is we try and learn from our mistakes and we go again.”