Oran Kearney not focusing too far ahead as he prepares for first part of Reds trilogy

Coleraine and Cliftonville will probably be sick of the sight of each other over the next month.
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The Bannsiders head to Solitude today for what is the first of three meetings over the next four weeks.

The BetMcLean League Cup final is the standout fixture on March 13, but the two sides will meet again the week before after being paired together in the quarter-finals of the Samuel Gelston’s Whiskey Irish Cup.

Coleraine boss Oran Kearney couldn’t help but see the funny side of it after hearing last Saturday’s draw, but he expecting some entertaining clashes with the Reds.

Coleraine boss Oran KearneyColeraine boss Oran Kearney
Coleraine boss Oran Kearney

“Sometimes that’s sod’s law,” he said.

“When you hit the last eight you’re gonna hit a tie like that.

“Generally it’s away to Larne – that’s normally the one we get.

“We’ll wrap this up for a month until then but when the time comes we’ll go and give it a real good rattle.

“They’ve had real good home form but records are there to be broken – cup ties are different.

“League’s league but the cup is so different where you’ll throw on 2/3 strikers at the end

“It’ll be an interesting one.

“It should be a real humdinger and one that we’ll look forward to.

“There’s a huge number of games and water to go under the bridge before we get to that point.

“For us, it’s about going there on Saturday and trying to get three points.

“It’s always a tough time when you go there.

“We’re in a really good place as the last four or five games we’ve got our mojo back and we’re right back in the levels that we want to be.”

The Bannsiders certainly do seem to be getting back to their best again with four wins in their last five games and only two goals conceded.

“Clean sheets and scoring goals are good combinations and if you can keep doing that, you’ll never be far away,” said Kearney.

“It’s something we’ve built on over the last few seasons and again we’ve registered quite a few this season already.

“It’s important we keep the back door shut as much as that we’ve got to create chances at the other end.”

With a full squad to pick from and new signing Andrew Mitchell looking right at home Kearney feels his side are in a good place.

“You want competition for places,” said the Bannsiders boss.

"We’ve had really good benches in the last couple of games.

“We’ve lost a couple over the window there – Evan Tweed, Ian Parkhill and Cathair Friel all gone out on loan.

“But it’s brought us down to the number we normally have at our club which is around the 20 mark – two keepers and 18 outfield players.

“We’re down now to a really good strong number and we’ve no passengers.

“Our bench has looked strong, we had good options and good cover in all aspects

“We’re sitting in a nice position.

“There’ll be a lot of games coming up – think we have three midweek games out of the next four – so we’ll need all of them.”