Ruaidhri Higgins praises Coleraine star who 'has that magic' after closing Premiership points gap
Coleraine manager Ruaidhri Higgins insists Will Patching “has that magic” after his first half strike proved decisive in their 1-0 Premiership victory over rivals Ballymena United.
Patching put the Bannsiders ahead after 29 minutes and helped his side close the gap on league leaders Larne to two points after the Inver Reds were beaten 3-2 by Carrick Rangers.
The 27-year-old initially joined Coleraine on loan from Carlisle United last summer, but made the move permanent in January and has established a reputation as one of the Irish League’s best players.
Patching previously worked under Higgins at Derry City, producing the best form of his career up to that point for the Candystripes, and brought his season league goal tally to seven on Friday evening.
"It was a brilliant goal, a really brilliant goal,” Higgins told the club’s media channel. “We’re seeing a different side to us in the last wee while.
"Will has that magic...he hits the crossbar from a free-kick and we’d one or two other opportunities on the counter we should have done better with, but I don’t care, we have won the game and kept a clean sheet.”
No team has collected more home points this season than Coleraine (37) – Linfield (35) could move past them with victory over rivals Glentoran on Saturday evening – while the Bannsiders have also scored the league’s most goals (36) at their own stadium.
They’ve now put together a six-game unbeaten run in the Premiership and Higgins praised his side for battling through to collect maximum points.
"I’m delighted,” he added. “We showed two different sides to us.
"We played extremely well in the first half, dominated the game and dominated the ball, and in the second half we lost composure a wee bit, we needed to be a bit more calm because it was chaos at times.
"We’ve dug in and managed to win the game. They had two chances, (Ryan) Schofield makes a good save and they’d a chance from a header through Sean Murray, but outside of that they didn’t have opportunities.
“We would have liked to be better in the second half, but our first half display got us in front and won us the game...it was about the three points for us tonight.
"If we had been really bad and won the game, I wouldn’t have cared, but we have put in a good first 45 minutes.”