Oran Kearney feels late Linfield defeat was 'kick in the teeth' for Ballymena United
Ballymena United manager Oran Kearney labelled his team’s 2-1 Premiership defeat to Linfield as “a kick in the teeth”.
Although the Sky Blues have a depressing record at the international venue, they looked to have done enough to nick a precious point until disaster struck in the last minute.
Matt Yates shot David Healy’s team into an early lead, but new striker Igor Rutkowski levelled things up after the restart for Ballymena.
United, however, had to see out the last 25 minutes with only 10 men after skipper Matthew Clarke was sent off having picked up his second yellow card.
They defended manfully against a Linfield onslaught until the final seconds when Kirk Millar’s cross was met by Kyle McClean, whose header was cleared off the line by Daithi McCallion, but the ball ricocheted off new boy Shane McEleney and into the net.
There was no way back for Kearney’s men at that stage.
“It was a kick in the teeth, to be honest,” said the former Coleraine and St Mirren manager. “It was a hard one to take.
“We got the equaliser at a good time after the interval, but Matthew’s red card was a hammer blow. It changed the game and we faced an avalanche for the last 20 minutes or so.
“In saying that, we stood up well; we defended our box well and we won a lot of second balls. It looked as though we were moving into added time when we were hit with that hammer blow.
“Daithi got the ball off the line brilliantly but bounces off Shane’s chest and into the net. It was a sickening one for the guys. You could say we deserved to take something from the game, but sometimes it doesn’t work like that.”
Kearney, however, believes his team showed enough in terms of hunger and determination that will help them climb the table.
He added: “We were more like ourselves, more what I want us to look like. We showed a lot of bravery and we looked dangerous going forward.
“Yes, we were disappointed to go a goal behind early on, but the response was really, really good and we created some big chances over the 90 minutes.
“I thought we had some massive performances out there; we showed a lot of courage. You find when you are struggling for form and points, things tend to go against you – and that’s what happened.”
Linfield manager David Healy believes his team made life difficult for themselves by not converting the chances that came their way.
“I’m pleased with some of our play and the chances we were making, but I’m then also frustrated we didn’t take more care and put them away,” he said. “When there is only one goal in a game, you always leave yourself exposed – and we got done because of that.
"The longer the game goes, you then start to worry will it (a winner) come. But we got a bit of luck in the end.
“I think we showed resilience and character to dig out the result. It can be challenging; it can be tough to play here, but the boys found a way, which pleased me. It’s important we build on this.
“Overall, we deserved to win the game. We put them under pressure, and we had enough opportunities to kill it off, but it was like a number of games of late, we didn’t capitalise.”