Oran Kearney full of praise for effort shown by 10-man Coleraine in Larne stalemate

The Bannsiders created the majority of the chances in the first half but never found a way past Rohan Ferguson.

However, the second half would be a different story as Gareth Deane was the busier of the two keepers.

The hosts made life more difficult for themselves on 65 minutes as Aaron Jarvis received a straight red card for an off-the-ball altercation with Micheal Glynn.

Deane would produce heroics at the death as he preserved a point after making a close-range double save to thwart Thomas Maguire.

“I thought we had a real good go in the first half whilst the game was nip and tuck,” said Kearney. “To be fair, I thought they came out of the blocks well in the second half and we expected them to do that but we weathered it well.

“The sending off makes it really tough but credit to our boys for showing that level of grit and determination that we needed.

“We rode our luck a bit, especially towards the end of the game, but I think when you go that long and work that hard, you probably deserve that little bit of luck and I’m glad we got it.

“Gareth’s qualities have never been in doubt and he’s been a great signing for us.”

Coleraine go into the post-split fixtures in sixth place and Kearney wants a strong end to the campaign.

“They are all big games and we had a load of injuries last season, meaning we were down to the bare bones,” he reflected.

“We didn’t pick up many points and we stumbled into the play-offs and we don’t want to do that this year.

“We want to go into a play-off with a bit of form and a few wins behind us...it’s important we get some big performances.”

COLERAINE: Deane, Kane, D.Jarvis, A.Jarvis, McKendry (Fyfe, 62), O’Donnell, Glackin, O’Mahony, McDermott (Carson, 62), Shevlin, Scott.

Subs (not used): Gallagher, Mullan, McCrudden, Lynch, Carlin.

LARNE: Ferguson, Want (Maguire, 83), Kelly, Sule (Gordon, 90), Bonis, Bolger, Thomson (Randall, 70), Millar, Glynn (Kearns, 83), Cosgrove, Ryan.

Subs (not used): Pardington, Watson.

Referee: Shane Andrews.