Oran Kearney feels he won't have to say too much to his Coleraine players ahead of tonight's visit by Glentoran as they bid to put their midweek disappointment by Crusaders behind them.
A disastrous start at The Showgrounds on Tuesday saw the Bannsiders fall behind to a McCauley Snelgrove goal on 42 seconds!
Philip Lowry doubled the Crues advantage before the quarter hour as the hosts failed to get a grip of the game.
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Robbie Weir's own goal before the break gave Kearney's men a lifeline though, and they threw the kitchen sink at their opponents in the second half but they couldn't find an equaliser.
Kearney cut a frustrated figure at the end and he knows his side will have to be better against the Glens despite them suffering their own midweek woes at Glenavon.
"I would hope you wouldn't have to say a huge amount to the players before Friday night's game," said the Bannsiders boss.
"The players are hurting, they're as frustrated as anybody, nobody means to go out and make those mistakes, nobody wants that to happen. It's highly frustrating.
"It's the second time it's happened to us. It's very similar probably to the Cliftonville game here where it was seven minutes in against them and we were 2-0 down.
"All of a sudden you're chasing the game and it gives them the spring that you don't want them to get.
"Glentoran are flying, they're going really well in the league, they were top of the league before Tuesday night and they've a huge amount of firepower as well.
"Any game we've played against them it's been really, really tough and we're going to need to be a damn sight better, particularly in the opening part of the game, if we're gonna take anything from the game."
Tuesday night's defeat saw Coleraine slip down to sixth place in the Danske Bank Premiership.
Kearney was disappointed to lose ground on the teams above them, but he feels it is still early enough in the season to be able to claw it back again.
"Tuesday night was fourth playing fifth and I just felt there was a gain to be made that would have got ourselves right into the mix again, but we weren't able to do that," he said.
"It's really early days though, you look at that top area of the table, there's a spread of points between the teams and it's amazing, a couple of wins in a row can have a massive impact on any team at this stage of the season.
"With that in mind it's important now, particularly having lost against Crusaders, to go and get something out of Friday's game."
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