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Steven Crawford

Oran Kearney hoping for some Boxing Day home comfort for Coleraine

Oran Kearney is hoping Coleraine can use home advantage to their favour when they welcome derby rivals Ballymena United to The Showgrounds on Boxing Day.

Memories of David Parkhouse's late winner for the Sky Blues at Warden Street in last year's festive clash are still fresh for the Baansiders.

But Kearney is hoping for a more positive outcome for his charges this Christmas.

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"Fingers crossed it is a good day for us," he said.

"We have a lot of good memories from down the years.

"Boxing Day games are brilliant but particularly the games here at home.

"We're looking forward to it, there's a good buzz about the place.

"With the Newry game having been called off we'll go into it itching and ready to go.

"Hopefully we can bring all that to the table on Boxing Day."

That postponement against Newry put the brakes on Coleraine's recent impressive run of six games unbeaten.

But Kearney revealed it has helped them clear up some illness in the camp ahead of the festive fixtures.

"We were disappointed to see the game postponed because we have been in good form of late," he said.

"Ideally you want to try and keep that momentum going and keep playing.

"In saying that probably like every other place of work at the minute the flu virus and bugs going around would have left us going into that game with a few guys struggling.

"Hopefully we can get all of those cleared up in time for Boxing Day."

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