Kearney wants more Coleraine glory

COLERAINE have enjoyed cup finals under Oran Kearney lately. Perhaps that’s why he is billing all nine remaining league games, starting tonight at home to Glenavon, as exactly that.

Treble talk is not on the agenda in the Coleraine dressing room but victory over the Mourneview Park men this evening will add to the conversation on the Showgrounds terraces.

Having defeated Crusaders to win the League Cup final last month and come from behind twice to beat Larne on Friday night to reach the last-four of the Irish Cup, a fifth Danske Bank Premiership victory in a row would take the Bannsiders to within four points of leaders Linfield at the top of the table.

After tonight, they travel to

Ballymena and Larne, with a home game against Dungannon Swifts in between.

Then will come a tasty Irish Cup semi-final with Ballymena prior to the split fixtures in the league taking place.

These are heady times for Coleraine, reminding the supporters of the 2017-18 campaign when the Bannsiders won the Irish Cup and finished runners-up to the Crues under Kearney. That helped him land a job with St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership last season.

Having returned in the summer, Coleraine have gone from strength to strength.

“We have a big game mentality and there was no panic when we went behind at Larne. The key thing was to stay in the game. Credit to the players because they were fantastic,” said Kearney.

“We won the Irish Cup two years ago and won the League Cup a few weeks ago but I don’t want my players to settle for anything. I want them to keep striving for success.

“It is great to be in the semi-finals of the Irish Cup but we forget about that now and focus on theGlenavongame.Wearedown to that stage of the season where we have nine or 10 cup finals coming up and we have to keep delivering.”

Eoin Bradley came off the bench at Larne to inspire the Bannsiders to victory.

Whether he starts against his old team this evening is open to debate.

Gary Hamilton’s Glenavon have endured a disappointing season and been humiliated with some heavy defeats, but they have improved in recent weeks, beating Crusaders and drawing with Glentoran.

The Lurgan Blues will be keen to continue that form as they look to finish seventh in the table and then build towards next term.

In frame: Eoin Bradley could start against Glenavon