Our mindset will be to attack to win the game, says Coleraine head coach Dean Shiels ahead of Crusaders test
Dean Shiels says his Coleraine side will play on the front foot to win the game as they travel to Crusaders tomorrow afternoon.
The Bannsiders put last weekend's defeat to Linfield behind them during the week as they sealed a 4-0 win against Ballinamallard United in the BetMcLean Cup on Tuesday night.
Ironically, Crusaders and Coleraine were paired up in the second round draw of the competition at Seaview ahead of today's Premiership meeting in north Belfast.
Whilst this summer has brought many changes at the Coleraine Showgrounds in terms of new arrivals and full-time football, the same can be said for Crusaders as Declan Caddell replaced long-serving Stephen Baxter in the dugout.
"I think it'll be tough, it's never easy at Seaview," Shiels said.
"There's been a bit of a change there at Seaview, too, in regards to personnel so we're looking forward to it.
"If we can try and build momentum now from Tuesday. If we can hit those levels and those standards then we've got a really good chance of winning the game.
"We'll go and attack, we'll go and try and win the game, that'll be our mindset going into the game.
"I think they'll play very direct, they'll be similar to a Baxter team. They have good players.
"They brought in players from England and Scotland and they have threats.
"They had a good win last week, so they'll be difficult to beat but I think we'll be confident going there and we'll give it a good go."
The Bannsiders made four changes for the midweek win away at Ballinamallard and Shiels says he now has a welcome headache to make in terms of team selection.
He further confirmed that club captain Lyndon Kane will remain absent for the foreseeable future through injury.
“You want people in form and try and choose between two players that are playing well, rather than the opposite of that,” he added.
"There's three games this week, there's three games next week, so we're going to need the majority of the squad to be ready and that's what having a squad is all about .
"Jack Scott been carrying a niggle so it was good for us to get him off on Tuesday.
"Graham Kelly did half a session on Thursday so we're building him back into it which is positive. Aidan Tejada is the same and Lyndon is still long term.
"Thankfully everyone came through Tuesday unscathed so we'll look forward to going again on Saturday.”
Star striker Matthew Shevlin netted twice in Tuesday night’s win against the Mallards and he says full-time football is already paying dividends in terms of recovery between matches.
"First of all, I think the club has done a really good job in transitioning from part-time to full-time,” he stated.
“I think it's been seamless and the professionalism around the club is really good.
“In terms of myself, I think the main thing for me is the recovery, the extra sleep and stuff like that.
“I feel a lot fresher and sharper, so, it's going well for me so far.
“Like Tuesday night, you come home from a night like that about 12.30am or 1am, and you're up the next morning at 6.30am or whatever for work...but thankfully I got a lie-in.”