Warrenpoint Town: Barry Gray 'dreading' Linfield game after 'embarrassing' Coleraine defeat

Warrenpoint Town manager Barry Gray has accused his players of throwing in the towel after a 5-2 loss at home to Coleraine in the Irish Premiership.

The defeat leaves Warrenpoint 12 points off safety with six games remaining.

"It's an embarrassing performance and an embarrassing result," said Gray, who added he was "dreading" playing leaders Linfield on Saturday.

"Whether we turn out a good performance or not against Linfield it will still be irrelevant at this point to us."

Despite conceding an early Stephen O'Donnell goal, Warrenpoint hit back at Milltown to draw level midway through the first half thanks to Daniel McKenna's goal.

However some wasteful finishing and defensive errors allowed Coleraine to net three times in the final six minutes before the break and put the game out of sight.

"There was six minutes of madness at the tail end of the first half that cost us any form of self respect at all," he said.

"We're not going to win games the way we defended tonight - simple as that.

"We scored a good goal and got it back to 1-1. We were on the front foot, had two great chances in the six yard box, missed both of them and a few minutes later we found ourselves massively trailing in the game.

"That's the difference and the story of the season. The reality is we didn't finish those chances, they did and that is why they are sitting in the top half of the table and we are right at the bottom."

Warrenpoint are rooted to the bottom of the table, some 12 points off Portadown in 11th who occupy the relegation play-off position.

Tuesday's performance came after a late goal denied Warrenpoint a draw away to Crusaders on Saturday, and Gray said he had called on his players to build on that result towards the business end of the season.

"We said after Saturday's performance we wouldn't throw the towel in, which is great coming from me but it looked very different from where I was standing tonight, watching the team perform the way we did," he added.

"I'm absolutely dreading it [playing Linfield on Saturday], to be honest with you.

"We're playing the best team in the country, top of the table against the bottom, and there is a gulf of difference between the two teams. Man for man, squad for squad.

"We will have to try and find a way to live with it the best we can and come out the other side with something."