Oran Kearney eager for January transfer window to open as Coleraine chief has eyes set on rebuild

The Bannsiders would succumb to a 3-1 defeat at home to Loughgall as Benji Magee and a brace from Nathaniel Ferris did the damage at The Showgrounds.

Kearney has been without several of his big stars for large parts of the campaign to date and believes that has had a big say on his side's poor results.

"There's a lot of noise and everything that goes on, but when you zoom out of that, it's pretty simple," he said.

"Even Stephen Lowry is 40% fit today but the impact he had on the second-half in relation to providing calm and authority, and yes there were times he was sloppy, but you expect that little bit of rustiness and he should be nowhere near a pitch.

"Him along with four or five others who are our real main men or go-to players in the spine of our team have missed a mountain of this season.

"I don't care what Irish League team you are and I've no problem saying it that if you remove a spine from that team for a prolonged period of time, you're going to get it tough and it's as simple as that.

"At times, we've pulled performances out there and at times we haven't - but in simple terms - that's the hardest part and that's why January can't come quick enough."

The Bannsiders had equalised through David McDaid’s close range finish on 51 minutes but would then fall behind again sixty seconds later – something which Kearney believes “epitomises” the current situation his side are in.

"We got out of the blocks well in the second-half and had a really good start by getting the equaliser,” he added.

"What really epitomises where we're at is that we work hard to get ourselves back in the game and then you concede a free-kick and it's down to individual errors.

"I said it before the game we're fed up seeing people put their arms up and saying 'that was my job' but we found ourselves in that scenario again which ripped our momentum.

"It made a tough environment even tougher.”