While there were major works at Coleraine before last season with the installation of a new 3g playing surface, there has been a similar rebuilding job on the pitch this summer.

No fewer than eight players have arrived during this summer window as boss Oran Kearney puts together a squad he feels can fire them back up the table again.

“We knew we had a lot of business to do,” said the Coleraine boss.

“Sometimes the frustrating thing about this window and pre-season is it can take up until the end of August to do that.

placeholder image — Michael McCrudden is one of eight new signings by Oran Kearney

“Some of the deals have gone on longer than ideally we would have wanted, but in the same stretch we’ve got all the bodies in now we would have wanted.

“Now it’s about getting to work and getting them up to speed as quickly as possible.

“There is a desire and hunger about the place.

“We’ve ended one cycle and now we are starting a new one.

“With that there’s a lot of fresh faces who I suppose who weren’t here in the previous years and they are here to have a good season and create their own bit of history.

“For us it’s very much about looking forward. We’re delighted with the business we’ve done, the new players have settled in really well, and we’re looking forward to starting now.”

The Bannsiders kick-off the new campaign with a mouthwatering home clash against Cliftonville on Saturday.

“It’s good to get up and running with a big home game,” Kearney said.

“Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd here and everyone will be raring to go and we can get the season off with a big win.”