Jamie Glackin eyeing cup glory with Coleraine

The Bannsiders have finished runners-up in the league in the last two seasons, but find themselves off the pace this term.

But with a place in the BetMcLean League Cup final already in the bag, and a chance to reach the Irish Cup quarter-finals up for grabs at home to Portadown today there is still plenty to play for.

Glackin knows it will be a tough tie against the Ports and new boss Paul Doolin, but he says Coleraine, buoyed by last week’s win over Linfield, will be doing everything to secure their place in the last eight.

“The Irish Cup is massive and it’s an on their day sort of game, so hopefully we can take last week’s performance into Saturday,” said the midfielder.

“Realistically, the Irish Cup and League Cup are competitions we are going to put our hearts and souls into.

“The League is maybe out of the picture but you still have to finish as high up the table as you can and pick up as many three points as you can to give yourself that chance.”

After a sticky end to the year the Bannsiders look to have got their groove back with two wins in their last three games.

Glackin has been a key figure for Oran Kearney’s side and scored in the excellent win over Linfield last Saturday as he started and finished a swift breakaway to wrap up the 3-0 victory.

The 26-year-old is hoping the win over the Blues is a real confidence-booster as they head into the business end of the season.

“I think it was a super goal to be honest,” said Glackin when asked about his strike against Linfield.

“The breakaway for a start was super, we got up the pitch really quick and thankfully ‘Jarvy’ took the option to play me in.

“We’ve had our critics over the last couple of months and we know we haven’t been doing well by not finding the back of the net or creating as many chances as we would have liked.

“However, Oran trusts everyone of us, we trust ourselves and we’re all together as a unit and thankfully it’s paying off now.

“It is a massive and really big result.

“It’s not even just to get the result, but people would have maybe thought that we would have banked in the 1-0, but to go and score another two against a team who is top of the league shows a bit of character.

“Hopefully that bounces us back for the games ahead.”

Bannsiders boss Kearney is also hoping the result against the Blues can kick his side on.

“The result needs to be a catalyst,” he said.

“It’s been a tough month or so for us but I felt that was brewing.

“I felt we had that in us and we threatened it a few times but it just didn’t quite happen.

“I hope that it’s out of the system and we’ve still so much to play for this season.

“We have the League Cup, the Irish Cup and we need to get as high up the table as possible in relation to European places and all that goes with it.

“I really hope it’s a catalyst and the kick-start so we can build on this.

“The Irish Cup is a competition we want to go deep in as we’ve had a lot of pleasure out of in the past and particularly with the way the league has gone.

“Portadown had a bit of time for Paul Doolin to implement his own ideas.

“For us, all we can control is us and we controlled ourselves last week I thought we were outstanding to a man

“The big drive this week will be the exactly the same, that we’ve gotta go and hit that level again.”