Ballymena United hoping to finish on a high

The Sky Blues have struggled for large parts of the season to replicate their form from the previous campaign.

A mixture of injuries and loss of form left David Jeffrey’s men struggling to find consistency.

But they have had the chance to regroup and get players back to full fitness again over the last four months.

And now they have the chance to finish on a high with the Irish Cup, but Jeffrey knows it will be a tough ask against Coleraine.

“We had a challenging season but the Irish Cup was our outlet,” the Sky Blues boss told the BBC.

“To win an Irish Cup would be very, very special, fantastic, but we will take it one game at a time.

“Our clear focus is on our semi-final with Coleraine and if we are fortunate enough to get through that then we could turn our attention to a final.

“We know Coleraine will be tough opponents. Oran [Kearney] has come back and picked them up again - they were going great guns and were playing some great football.

“They are a strong side, Oran has them well organised and they work hard.

“We have been doing what we usually do but in a different way with 27 July as our target date.

“The challenges have been great in making sure we don’t overtrain the players in a rush to get them ready.

“We have been trying to get the players back up to speed, gently, incrementally building things up.”

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