Glentoran are definitely title challengers says Bannsiders boss

Coleraine manager Ruadhri Higgins claims early season pacesetters Glentoran have gone under the radar - despite their unbeaten start to the season.

While much has been said and written about the investment at Coleraine and the recruitment of high profile players like Joel Cooper, the Bannsiders' boss believes the Glens have considerably strengthened too.

The two teams, both still unbeaten, meet in a mouth watering clash at the Showgrounds on Friday night.

"Glentoran are definitely title challengers," said Higgins in his weekly media conference.

"They've gone under the radar lovely. In terms of recruitment they've signed a lot of serial winners.

"They've signed Pat Hoban, and we all know about him, Liam Burt who, for a long time, was one of the best attacking players in the League of Ireland and who I tried to sign at Derry.

"Then there's Jordan Stewart, an outstanding player, and Daniel Larmour.

"They've signed a lot of really talented players that's added to what was already a good squad, then you look at the likes of Joe Thompson who's been unavailable to them.

"People talk about investment so they've really enhanced their squad as well and they should be bang there, no doubt about it," he added.

The same could be said for Friday night's hosts who look a different animal this year.

They have won five and drawn one of their six games to date and victory on Friday would see them leapfrog their opponents at the top.

"When you've got good players nothing surprises you but we're only six games in so we won't get too excited just yet," he said.

"We'll keep going about our work and being professional and see where that takes us. It's so far so good but it's only a start.

"We've a lot of talented players and we want to play in a way that brings out their best qualities, we want to do things slightly differently.

"We want to dominate games with the ball and so far we've been very successful at doing that.

"There's gonna be times where we have to scrap, we have to dig in and fight, but I'm more than confident in this group that we have scrappers, we have people who are prepared to do both sides of the game and I really like the balance in our squad.

"We're a new team and an evolving team so you would imagine that there's room for improvement," he added.

"But it's a privilege to be be part of something that's ambitious. It's really important that we're ambitious and you want your supporters to be excited, but there's gonna be a time in the season where it's not going to plan, it's not perfect, that's inevitable, that is coming.

"We expect a lot of ourselves – we've got good players, we've got good staff, a really good fan base - so there's a lot to be excited about but there's gonna be ups and downs and we'll need everybody sticking together regardless of how it's going."

Friday's game is a welcome return home for management, players and supporters who have been on the road for several weeks.

"The last time I was here was the first game of the season against Larne," recalled Higgins.

"I missed the Dungannon game because I had a bad infection so it feels like forever since I was at the Showgrounds.

"I'm really excited about being back at home and I hope the place is packed to the rafters, I would imagine it will be.

"It's a brilliant fixture for the people in Coleraine and hopefully we can continue our good form."