Coleraine beat Limavady United 1-0 on Saturday evening in the Premiership regular season. The match was played at the home ground of the top side, and the result left them clear at the summit. Eight games in, they had collected 22 points from seven wins and one draw.
The decisive moment came just before the interval. J. Cooper struck in the 45th minute to give the hosts the lead, and by then they had already earned a yellow card through A. Mullan. Cooper himself picked up a booking shortly after, in the 42nd.
And here's the thing — the game was decided in episodes rather than sustained pressure. Coleraine dominated possession at 66 per cent and registered 150 attacks against 88 for the visitors. Yet the match turned on three or four moments, and the rest was background.
We had called a home win before kick-off, and the confidence sat at 89 per cent. It felt right — Coleraine had won four of their last five matches by two-goal margins, while Limavady were bottom-half and had lost five of seven.
Limavady tried to respond and brought on three players in the 62nd minute — S. Devine, L. McGregor, and later A. Mullan was replaced by S. Carlin. The visitors ran out of legs and couldn't find a way through a side that had one foot in controlling the tempo.
The numbers told the story of a match where chances went begging for the visitors. Coleraine had 16 shots off target and five on target, while Limavady managed just one shot on target from eight free kicks. Possession was one-sided, and the shots reflected that.
The scoreline leaves Coleraine eight points clear at the top after eight rounds. Limavady remain in 10th place with six points from seven games and have hit a wall in their search for consistency.
