Our senior players led by example in our professional performance at Dollingstown, says Coleraine boss Ruaidhri Higgins

A brace apiece from Alex Watson and Declan McManus – added to efforts from Jamie Glackin, Ronan Doherty, Kodi Lyons-Foster and Tiernan Brolly sealed an 8-0 win against their Premier Intermediate opponents.

The Bannsiders went into the game as huge favourites and Higgins was delighted that his players got the job done in ruthless fashion as they led 3-0 with just 16 minutes on the clock.

He said: “The application and the professionalism of our players shone through.

"I thought Ronan Doherty and Jamie Glackin, particularly in the first half, were outstanding in how they went about it.

"It was a really good professional performance at a brilliant venue. This is a brilliant wee football club.

"Hubert, the owner, does unbelievable work here. The manager, Stephen, is a really good man.

"They deserve so much credit for the way they have the pitch and the way they look after it – it's as good as anything in the country.

"The players were just clinical and that's what we asked for before the game. We just asked for total professionalism.

"We never disrespect any opposition and the players’ professionalism shone through.”

Coleraine managed to rest key personnel in Joel Cooper and Will Patching ahead of the derby clash against Ballymena United this Saturday, with several of the club’s young stars shining – Alex Watson in particular - amid injuries to the first-team panel at The Showgrounds.

"It's important we have a good group of players here,” Higgins added.

"We have a lot out injured at the minute...but we have a good group and we have good young players as well.

"It's important that we find the right moments to integrate them as well and they've all done well tonight.

"Alex is a good player, he can play in different positions, he was at Linfield and we managed to get him to our place.

"He's an underage international and he’s got a lot going for him.

"He's done really well, as did Tiernan Brolly when he came on, and Cead McGrath, so we’ve some good young players.

"But I thought the senior players really led by example here tonight.”

Coleraine lost their last Premiership fixture at Bangor on Saturday and Higgins is hoping for a response as they take on the Sky Blues.

"We went and looked at the stats and the data after the game vs Bangor,” he explained.

"We had 80% possession, we had 33 crosses in their box, 24 attempts, so from that point of view, we did a lot of things quite well.

"But the most disappointing statistic is that we conceded two goals. It's important that we try and tidy up on that end because we'll score goals, there's no doubt about that.

"As much as Saturday was disappointing, we've won six out of nine games, which is a decent return.”