'We're happy with our form:' Higgins

Coleraine head coach Ruaidhri Higgins believes his team is in 'decent enough form' as they prepare to welcome Ballymena United to the Showgrounds for the first time this season on Friday night.

The Bannsiders go into the game on the back of a 1-1 draw at Carrick Rangers last weekend whilst Friday's opponents won their first game in seven with victory over Crusaders on Tuesday night.

The teams have met twice already this campaign - both times at the Warden Street Showgrounds - with the visitors winning on the first occasion before losing on Boxing Day.

"It's a good game for us, we're in decent enough form," admitted Higgins in his weekly press conference. "We've taken 13 points from 15 available which is a really good return.

"We went to Carrick to win but you have to sometimes understand that they were in an outstanding vein of form themselves.

"They were difficult conditions and a point was not what we wanted but, as I said after the game and I stand over it, it's no disaster.

"If you look at our two games against Carrick at home we went a goal behind in both games and had to fight for all three points.

"It's important not to look at how successful clubs have been - you have to look at the personnel on the pitch. You look at Carrick's team and they have so much experience, so many trophies and medals between them.

"Over the last six weeks they've been the form team in the league so it's important that people don't get carried away, it doesn't always go the way you want or plan.

"We won our four previous games on the spin and got ourselves into the quarter-finals of Irish Cup along the way as well so we're really happy with our form at the minute," he added.

Both teams were busy in the transfer market following Boxing Day and several new faces will be enjoying their first 'A26' derby on Friday.

"They've invested extremely heavily in the likes of Fuad Sule and Dylan McGeoch who are good footballers," continued Higgins.

"You've got full-time clubs and part-time clubs, that's the way people talk about clubs, but for a part-time club you'd have to say they've invested extremely heavily. They've really backed Oran, and rightly so.

"It's probably going to be a slightly different match to the previous games. We were excellent the first time we went to the Showgrounds but we weren't good enough on Boxing Day and we know that.

"This will be a different type of game I would imagine. Hopefully we see a real energy about us and speed in our play – that's what we want – and we're looking forward to it.

"We've won 11 out of 14 home games which is a fantastic record: regardless of how the game's going at any point we know we're never out of games and we'll keep going right to the end.

"We're never beaten and we will keep going right to the bitter end."