ASSISTANT head coach Michael O’Connor says the squad have ambitions of continuing their strong home form as they welcome Crusaders to The Showgrounds tomorrow afternoon…

Coleraine boast one of the best home records in the division and that is a statistic that they wish to prolong as they aim to beat Crusaders for the first time this season.

Declan Caddell’s side have won the previous two meetings by a 2-1 scoreline – but O’Connor believes the Stripes’ performance in both games meant they should have had something to show for their efforts.

He said: “We’re looking forward to it.

“We’ve picked up recently, we had a good win against Loughgall last weekend but we’ve liked playing at home this season.

“I think we are top-of-the-table on home form so it’s a game we’re looking forward to and we’re going to attack it to try and win the game.

“I think in the two games we’ve already played against Crusaders, we had enough chances to win both of them but we just didn’t take them.

“In the last game in the BetMcLean Cup, they scored in the 89th minute from a set-piece.

“We know what they’re about but we will concentrate on what we can do to hurt them and attack it the same way we have done previously against them.”

Coleraine come into the clash after last weekend’s 4-0 win at Loughgall, with attackers Matthew Shevlin, Jamie McGonigle and Rhyss Campbell all on target.

“It’s important to try and share the goals around,” O’Connor reflected.

“We are looking most weeks at Shevy (Matthew Shevlin) to get the goals, so it was good last week that Jamie (McGonigle) and Rhyss (Campbell) got some.

“You look at Rhyss who has got five goals already this season which is a good return, especially considering he hasn’t played every game and is on the wing.

“He got an assist last week and it’s good to get the goals spread around the team.

“We just need to get some defenders to score as I don’t think any of them have yet.

Supporters can still get tickets for tomorrow’s game HERE.