PADDY McLaughlin believes his side’s upcoming trilogy with Coleraine will provide tough encounters and each will bring their own importance.

The Reds will face the Bannsiders three times over the next four weeks in three different competitions, beginning on Saturday when Oran Kearney’s side visit Solitude (3pm kick-off) in the league.

They will then meet in the quarter-final of the Samuel Gelston’s Whiskey Irish Cup in at the beginning of March before contesting the Bet McLean League Cup final a week later.

But McLaughlin is refusing to look any further than the weekend clash and stressed the importance of victory if they are to stay in the chasing pack for the league title.

“They’re tough games, Coleraine are a good side and they have been for a long time,” McLaughlin agrees.

“Oran (Kearney) has done a brilliant job up there for the last few years and that will be no different. They’re all tough games against Coleraine but we take it one game a time.

“We’ll play them three times over the next couple of weeks and they’ve all their own importance as they come.

“Right now, Saturday is the big one for us. It’s important that we try and get a result to stay in contention and stay in the leading pack and that’s what we’re trying to do as best we can. The boys have responded to that challenge every week so we can’t praise them enough at the minute.”

The Solitude side go into the weekend clash off the back of back-to-back victories over Carrick Rangers and in Tuesday’s league win they survived a late scare to hang on for victory.

McLaughlin was pleased that their ‘mental scar’ of throwing away a two-goal lead in Ballymena didn’t manifest again and hopes they will take confidence in being able to see the game out.

“It’s always in your head now, it’s a wee bit of a mental scar that I’m sure we all have,” he acknowledged.

“We were comfortable for long periods in the game, we just got nervous in the end. But like I say, it’s a mental scar from a few weeks back.

“Hopefully coming out and holding out and getting the result that will put that to bed. You don’t want to be living nervous in the last couple of minutes, willing the clock to go down.

“We should be seeing out games a lot more comfortably than we have the last few weeks.”

Ronan Doherty continued his goal-scoring form with two further goals on Tuesday night and McLaughlin revealed the midfielder was challenged to bring more goals to his game in order to become one of the top players in the division.

“We’ve challenged him over the last couple of weeks to try and add goals to his game,” he revealed.

“We all know how good a footballer he is and we all know how he likes to get on the ball and play. If he wants to take his game to the next level, he’s got to add goals to that.

“He’s done that over the last couple of games and if he can continue to do that then he’s definitely in contention to be up there with the top players in the division.

“He’s that modest at times that he would probably be embarrassed to be told that, but he shouldn’t be.

“If he adds goals to his game, then he’ll be in the same bracket as the top players in the league - there’s no doubt about it.”

Rory Hales's return from injury gives Cliftonville added options
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Rory Hales's return from injury gives Cliftonville added options

Joe Gormley also came off the bench to net his first league goal since November, but McLaughlin feels that that particular stat is harsh on his striker who has suffered injury setbacks in that time and believes his introduction along with that of Chris Curran helped to change the game.

“Joe has got a couple of injuries in that time too, so it’s harsh calling back when his last goal was,” insists McLaughlin.

“He’s a phenomenal goal-scoring record and that’s what we should be concentrating on. That they came on tonight and swung the game back in our favour along with Chris Curran. I thought the two of them were excellent.

“When they came on, we were under the cosh a bit, we were on the back foot, and I think that turned the tide of the game whenever the two boys came on.”

Rory Hale returned to the squad for the first time since suffering a reoccurrence of a hamstring injury in early January and McLaughlin is pleased with his available options.

“We’ve had Rory on the bench and that’s him back involved,” he confirmed.

“It shows you how competitive the squad is that we’ve got the likes of Hale on the bench along with Joe Gormley and Chris Curran. There are others there as well and it is important we stay fit and healthy over the next couple of weeks because we’re going to need every player. Everybody has a role to play and the players know that.

“There will be disappointments along the way with not playing and results not going our way,  but as long as those players keep sticking together as they have done all season you never know where it could take us this year.”