Shiels Deems Coleraine’s Conceded Goals “Unacceptable”

Coleraine manager Dean Shiels voiced strong criticism of his team’s defensive performance, labeling the goals conceded in their 2-1 defeat to Crusaders as “unacceptable.” The scoring began with Jordan Stewart’s looping header from a corner, followed by Kieran Offord’s second goal, which resulted from a defensive miscommunication. Although Matthew Shevlin scored for Coleraine, the team was reduced to ten men after Kyle McClelland received a red card. Shiels expressed his disappointment with the individual errors made during the match. “We are disappointed as to how the game unfolded particularly in the first half, it was just unacceptable the goals we gave away,” he told BBC Sport NI. He further commented on the sending off, stating, “I can say the same about the red card it was preventable and it’s extremely frustrating we put a lot of detail into what we do in training, but you can’t control individual mistakes.” Despite the early setbacks, Shiels was satisfied with Coleraine’s second-half response but recognized that the initial mistakes had left them with too significant a challenge to overcome. He hopes the match will serve as a crucial learning experience for his young team. “Taking those [mistakes] out of the game, once we went down to 10 men, I thought we were creating chances and showed togetherness to try get back in the game,” Shiels continued. He also highlighted the youth of some players, adding, “The goalkeeper and the centre backs are 21 and you find with young players you get inconsistencies, and you have to preserved with them and help them improve, but we need to learn fast as it’s costing us points.”