Oran Kearney feels Ballymena United suffered from derby hangover during Bangor defeat
Ballymena United manager Oran Kearney felt his side suffered a hangover from their Boxing Day victory over Coleraine after falling to a 2-0 defeat against Bangor.
Daire O’Connor’s double sealed a memorable victory over their rivals at The Showgrounds, but Kearney’s men couldn’t build on that momentum as they rounded out 2025 on a losing note following Danny Lafferty’s own goal and a Lewis Francis strike.
The Sky Blues haven’t been able to string together consecutive Premiership wins since August and Tuesday’s setback sees them remain sitting in ninth, six points adrift of the top-half.
"Our first half performance wasn't good and you fear that hangover from Boxing Day,” Kearney told the club’s media channel. “Even getting in at 0-0 at half-time would have been good and you would have taken that.
"The manner of the goal we conceded is really sloppy...we don't make them work for it.
"We had a really good start to the second half, looked like we were on the push, they've won a penalty and Sean has saved it, and you're hoping to kick on.
"The naivety of the second goal and manner of it, it's just shooting yourself in the foot.
"Those are the frustrating parts but it has been the same group of 13 players who have served me since I came to the club down to probably 10 tonight and I'm going to have to ask the same guys to go again on Saturday.
"Andy Scott hasn't played minutes for the U20s yet and we had to use tonight as an opportunity to get Andy up to speed, but we knew we wouldn't be keeping Andy on the pitch after 60 or 65 minutes because we have to do right by him.
"We don't have a striker, we're struggling in areas like that and missed a focal point. Daire did well up there at times and we had good crossing opportunities, but we lacked that killer instinct. It was a frustrating night."