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Steven Crawford

Oran Kearney happy to see Coleraine avoid new manager bounce

Oran Kearney was pleased to see his Coleraine side avoid the new manager bounce against Portadown on Saturday.

Niall Currie took charge of his first game with the Ports following his midweek appointment and Kearney admitted he did fear a lift in performance from the opposition.

But a professional display by the Bannsiders allayed those fears as they ran out 4-0 winners in the end.

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Paddy McNally's early own goal put the visitors on the back foot before Lee Lynch doubled the lead for Coleraine on 10 minutes.

Second half goals from Matthew Shevlin and James McLaughlin completed the rout much to Kearney's delight.

"You knew with them coming here with a new manager and a new mindset, you've seen it so many times before, that a team automatically will get that bounce," he said.

"Even without a new manager you're gonna get a reaction, people squirm, start to protect themselves.

"Players want to do more, to be seen, to ensure that they protect themselves to try and get themselves a future at the club.

"They key thing for us was that we got a hold of it really early and we didn't let go.

"We know that they've conceded loads of goals and we know that morale is low, the stats don't lie

"To me the onus was on us to attack, we had to go and ask questions, we really had to get off on the front foot to make sure we had loads of opportunities to do that.

"I thought to a man today the boys were excellent. Those creative players we have, we're not necessarily critical of them but we're harsh on them because we want so much from them."

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