Lyndon Kane hails quality - and character - of Coleraine's 'absolutely unbelievable' recruits
Coleraine captain Lyndon Kane insists the changing room camaraderie means it “doesn’t feel like you’re coming to work” and has hailed not only the quality, but also the character of the club’s summer recruits.
The Bannsiders were tipped to compete for Premiership title glory ahead of this season following an impressive transfer window which resulted in the likes of Joel Cooper, Kodi Lyons-Foster and Will Patching arriving at The Showgrounds.
They’ve handled the pressure of expectation across the opening weeks, putting together a four-game unbeaten league run while conceding only once in the process.
Kane has spent the entirety of his career at Coleraine, making his Irish League debut as a teenager, and has led them through a transitional period as the County Londonderry club settle into life as a full-time outfit.
He’s watched players come and go over the past 11 years since stepping up to senior level, but he has credited the due diligence of manager Ruaidhri Higgins in ensuring the right characters have been recruited.
“It’s been brilliant, to be honest,” he told the club’s website. “I think one thing that Ruaidhri and his staff do is when they’re recruiting a player, it’s a quality player, but it’s also a very, very good person.
“They do a background check and know everything about them, so everyone that’s walked through that door has been absolutely unbelievable.
“I think people in and around the club and even people outside the club can see how close-knit of a group we actually are. We spend a lot of time together.
“There’s a lot of days that we’re in and stuff like that…but it’s a great place to be and it doesn’t feel like you’re coming to your work.
“It’s all your pals and everyone gets on really well…so it’s actually going very well.”
Coleraine are looking to maintain unbeaten momentum in Saturday’s trip to Crusaders, who have remarkably won seven of their last eight meetings against the Bannsiders.
Declan Caddell’s side reigned supreme in all four Premiership clashes last term alongside sealing BetMcLean Cup progression, but Coleraine got some revenge with victory in May’s European play-off semi-final, which was Higgins’ first game in charge.
Just like Coleraine, the Crues have compiled a new-look squad with a host of players arriving from Scotland, and while many joined as unknown quantities, Kane insists his side have done their research.
“Obviously, they’re bringing in players that you don’t know an awful lot about, but we’ve done a good bit of analysis on them,” he added. “We have a few Scottish lads ourselves, so you’re getting snippets of information from them on what they’re about.
“They might play slightly differently than what they used to, but it’s always been a tough place to go for us, but not just us, anyone.
“We know we’re going to be in for a tough test…but, obviously, we go there full of confidence.
“We’ve won three games out of four. If we go and put on a performance the way we know we can, then hopefully we can come away with a win.”