Coleraine manager Ruaidhri Higgins says his side's 1-1 draw with Carrick Rangers "isn't a disaster".
Will Patching broke the deadlock for Coleraine, who made a bright start to the game, before Mikey Place cancelled out his effort.
Despite closing the gap to the top of the Irish Premiership to five points, league leaders Larne's defeat by Portadown means that the Bannsiders missed an opportunity to further catch up.
"The disappointing thing for us was in that period of dominating part of the game, we didn't get ourselves further in front and we have given up one chance in the first half and they have scored from it," Higgins told BBC Sport NI.
"We huffed and puffed second half on a really poor pitch, by no fault of their own. It didn't make for a game we wanted to play.
"Listen, the players have put in so much over the last few weeks and have come up against a team who have won five league games on the spin. We wanted three [points] obviously, but it is not a disaster."
The result means that Coleraine are now unbeaten in their last five games as they try to further close the gap to Larne. However, they have played an extra game compared to the Inver Reds.
Third in the table Glentoran's victory against Ballymena United means that they are now seven points behind the Bannsiders with three games in hand.
"No, not at all," Higgins replied when asked would he be thinking about Larne's loss and Glentoran's victory.
"As I have said from the very start of the season, we can only look after our own house and we will continue to do that.
"There is plenty of football still to play and there are 27 points still to play for and let's see how many of the 27 we can get. We are in good form ourselves, so we just need to keep going."
Carrick Rangers manager Stephen Baxter added that he thought a point apiece was a "fair result", as his side extend their unbeaten league run to seven games.
"We created those two moments in the second half to put the game away," Baxter told BBC Sport NI.
"Coleraine hit the crossbar on two occasions and these things can go either way.
"I think a point was probably a fair result."