MANAGER'S VIEW: Fast start is exactly what we wanted says Ruaidhri Higgins after Coleraine's home triumph against Crusaders
Ruaidhri Higgins admits Coleraine’s quickfire start against Crusaders was exactly what they wanted as they picked up all three points at The Showgrounds.
The Bannsiders were ruthless early doors on home soil as Senan Devine scored inside the opening minute, before Jay Henderson and Matthew Shevlin also netted to give Coleraine a three-goal buffer with just eight minutes on the clock.
Coleraine had a fourth goal to celebrate just before the hour mark as Devine once again got in the act – with Crusaders grabbing a consolation goal late on through Michael Mulholland’s effort.
THOUGHTS ON THE WIN?
"We spoke about it beforehand, we wanted a really, really fast start.
"We set the standard last week against Portadown in terms of how you start games and we want to maintain that as best as we can moving forward..
"It's important that we, I think when we get in front, then it can be very, very difficult to beat us and I felt how we started the game today was exactly how we wanted.
"Don't get me wrong, you never envisage being 3-0 up after eight minutes and I don't think that's ever happened to me in my career before.
"However the players have been an absolute credit and they deserve all the credit in the world.
WHAT’S IT LIKE HAVING THE GAME WON INSIDE EIGHT MINUTES?
“It’s a really, really strange feeling because you get a sense that around the ground people are, when's the next one going in?
"That’s not real life and it's not how football works.
"To be honest, I would have done exactly what Declan done, they stopped the spaces, they defended deeper, etc.
"We still had all our opportunities in the game and then Senan (Devine) gets a brilliant fourth goal and the game's completely dead at that point.
"We were then able to introduce players to get on the pitch.
"It's been a really, really good start for us and I couldn't be prouder of the players.
PLEASED WITH SQUAD DEPTH?
"We've worked really, really hard over the last three windows to get the squad to this point, really hard.
“There is a lot of hard work in signing a player these days, so much hard work.
“And then players...their first question a lot of the time is where am I going to play and where do you see me playing? And sometimes they don't always get the answers. that they want to hear.
"But we realise that it's going to take 21, 22 players to achieve what we want to achieve this year.