Ruaidhri Higgins wants Coleraine to bounce back from BetMcLean Cup exit ahead of Irish Cup showdown at in-form Carrick Rangers
After watching an opportunity to reach the final of the BetMcLean Cup come and go – Coleraine boss Ruaidhri Higgins has now targeted a deep run in the Irish Cup.
The Bannsiders were denied a spot in the BetMcLean Cup final on Tuesday night after an extra-time loss to Glentoran.
Coleraine looked like winning the contest towards the latter stages of the second half after Joel Cooper cancelled out Pat Hoban’s opener, although Glentoran had different ideas as they make the breakthrough via Jordan Jenkins just three minutes into extra-time to run out 2-1 victors.
It now means the Glens will face Linfield in the decider next month as Coleraine now have Premiership and Irish Cup commitments to contend with between now and the end of the campaign.
Their Irish Cup schedule continues on Saturday as they make the trip to in-form Carrick Rangers.
Since losing 7-0 to Glentoran, the Amber Army are now unbeaten in their last seven games in all competitions, including lifting the County Antrim Shield last month.
"We've been down this road before,” Higgins said.
"There was always going to be bumps in the road.
"We would have liked to have got to a cup final, absolutely, but we have an opportunity now to get into the next round of the Irish Cup, which is another fantastic competition.
"It's our third away game in a week, which can be testing, but we have enough experience in our group to go there and try and get a big result.
"We've been on a decent run, the players gave everything in the game on a tough night on Tuesday, but the two goals from our point of view were really, really poor goals to give away.”
Carrick were also in action on Tuesday night as they recovered from a one-goal deficit to win 3-2 against Bangor at Taylors Avenue.
Higgins says he is fully aware of the task that faces his players ahead of the journey to east Antrim.
He stated: “It’s a great game against a team who are bang in form.
"Carrick are one of the in-form teams in the league and we have to get Tuesday night out of the system.
"We have to recover properly and prepare as best as we can for a really difficult fixture at Carrick.”