Ruaidhri Higgins slams 'terrible' Irish League pitch and provides 'see what happens' transfer update
Coleraine manager Ruaidhri Higgins slammed Carrick Rangers’ playing surface as “terrible” after Saturday’s 2-0 Premiership win at Taylors Avenue – and believes “for us to develop as a league, we have to demand more from ourselves”.
The Bannsiders are setting the early Premiership pace, currently sitting top following a three-game unbeaten run at the start of this season.
Higgins’ men and reigning champions Larne, who have played just one game, are the only two teams yet to taste league defeat even at this early stage in a competitive top-flight.
Joel Cooper’s first goal of the campaign and a late Ben Doherty strike secured a second consecutive away win for Coleraine, but Higgins wasn’t impressed with the pitch his side played on at the weekend.
"This is one of the most difficult places in the league to come to for a number of reasons,” he said on BBC Sportsound. “They have good players and the pitch is terrible, it’s a really poor pitch, especially for this time of the year.
"I think for us to develop as a league and get better, we have to demand more from ourselves.
"We knew we would have to roll up our sleeves and we have shown we can win in different ways, which is important.”
Higgins has had to deal with a number of injuries at the start of this season – captain Mark Coyle is set to miss most of the season after rupturing his ACL in Europe while Ryan Schofield and Cameron Stewart were also amongst the absentees on Saturday.
Talisman Cooper, who enjoyed a dream debut campaign at The Showgrounds last term, was forced off with 13 minutes left to play in a potential worry for Coleraine.
Higgins is delighted with his squad and the options at his disposal, but didn’t rule out further transfer activity before the window slams shut.
"It’s too early to see where it’s at (Cooper’s injury),” he added. “We don’t know the extent, hopefully it’s not too bad.
"Joel got a brilliant first goal after the pass from Dylan Boyle and we know how important Joel is for us, but we have a really good group here.
"Injuries are part of football, unfortunately at the minute we probably have two or three too many, but we’ll be ok.
"I know it’s popular commentary that we have a huge squad, we actually don’t, we have a very talented squad and it’s not too big, which I like.
"We do have players who are versatile and can slot in different roles.
"We’re happy with the group but we’ll see what happens over the next week. We still have a week or so to go in the window.”