WHAT THE MANAGER SAID: 'It's not going to be beautiful and spectacular every week' - Ruaidhri Higgins pleased with points over pretty football as 10-man hosts end up with striker donning gloves
Coleraine grabbed goals from Matthew Shevlin and Joel Cooper following Levi Ives corner-kicks to claim a 2-0 victory over 10-man Portadown – with the hosts losing goalkeeper Aaron McCarey to red in first-half injury time and striker Eamon Fyfe stepping in as stand-in between the posts.
Here’s the verdict of Coleraine boss Ruaidhri Higgins:
OVERALL PERFORMANCE...
"It's three points - not our best performance of the season by any stretch.
"But there's something satisfying about not being at your best and managing to win games.
"Credit to the players, we found a way and we move on.
"I think we had all the possession in the first half without really creating.
"It's probably the least amount of chances we've created in a game all season.
"But managed to come away with a 2-0 win off goals from set-plays...we'll take it.
"You're not going to create loads of chances every week."
SQUAD PROGRESS...
"It's really, really important (to find alternative ways to win).
"There's no getting away from it, the red card was a huge blow to them.
"I thought they were really well set-up and probably learned a lot from the first game (last month's 4-1 win at Shamrock Park by Coleraine).
"They frustrated us and we were a wee bit one-paced in the first half.
"But it's not going to be beautiful and spectacular every week.
"There's times it's going to be poor but you can still win games of football when not at your best.
"That's part of the development of the team...we've found a way when we haven't been brilliant."
STRIKER IN NETS...
"We didn't even really mention that (at half-time) because sometimes you can lose all concept, it becomes chaos...shooting from anywhere.
"You're going away from what you're good at, we trust the players.
"It was a frustrating afternoon but we stuck at it and not many will come from Shamrock Park and pick up six points."
RESPONSE TO PORTADOWN RED CARD...
"We were actually going to make, not a personnel change but a change in how we were going to approach the second half.
"But the red card changes that and then we're able to send people further up the pitch.
"But you always have to be wary about Portadown on the counter-attack.”