Fan Factor

COLERAINE captain Stephen O’Donnell is hoping the adrenaline from Tuesday night’s win will help their efforts against Crusaders this evening…

The Bannsiders compete in their third match in six days as they welcome Stephen Baxter’s side to the Ballycastle Road.

O’Donnell knows a vocal support from the 12^th man can help make all the difference yet again.

“I thought there was a big turnout by the fans on Tuesday night and a real great atmosphere and a want and desire from them to get us into a cup final,” he said.

“We felt that, it makes a massive difference and a big thank you to them.

“Hopefully they are proud of our performance and we’ve given them another big day out.

“When you win matches like that by going to penalties and going to the well to get a result, it brings you that momentum where we will be bouncing into Friday’s game.

“We’ve had a big week here and it was one we targeted three wins from.

“We’ve got two out of three so far but we are going into tonight full of beans and confidence to get that third win.”

O’Donnell captained the Stripes to their third successive BetMcLean Cup final on Tuesday night and was quick to praise his team-mates for their never say die attitude as they twice came from behind before prevailing on spot kicks,

“When you play in games like that, you can feel the momentum of the game and I don’t think Cliftonville fans would disagree with me but I thought for large spells we were on top,” he continued.

“I thought we dominated the ball, created more chances and they looked lively on the break but apart from that, I felt we had the momentum.

“Even whey scored a second in extra-time, it didn’t knock us back and I thought from the second-half in normal time we drove forward and had a real purpose and desire to get into a cup final.

“To a man we were excellent, we are disappointed with the two goals we conceded, but to drag ourselves into a final really epitomised about what we’ve turned back into.”