Kearney ready for cup battle as Bannsiders face the Crues

The sides had had some real ding-dong battles in recent years and the Bannsiders boss is expecting this one to be no different.

“Crusaders have a great cup pedigree in recent years, they are probably one of the best cup sides in the country,” he told Times Sport.

“It’s going to be a tough game, especially up there, but we put in some great performances in this competition a couple of years ago to get to the final and ideally we would loive to do that again.

“The way this league is now any team is capable of beating each other. I know Stephen Baxter will not be underestimating us and we will be exactly the same, and the team which turns up on the night will be going through to the next round.

“We’ll see how the guys come through the weekend. Shane took a knock to the ankle and there’s a couple of other guys carrying wee niggles also. Howard Beverland and Stephen Douglas will also come in to the reckoning again after missing out against Ards.

“So we’ll assess it and come up with a team which we feel is more than capable of going to Seaview and getting a result.”

It’s a big week for Coleraine with tonight’s cup game at Seaview and then the first derby match of the season at Ballymena on Saturday.