Oran Kearney knows the challenge for clubs like Coleraine to push for league titles is getting tougher by the season but he insists they have to "keep trying to find a way".
Kearney has led the Bannsiders to three runners-up finishes in the Irish Premiership in the last five years, but with more clubs going full-time after significant investment the task of replicating that has got even harder.
Rather than accept defeat though Kearney is determined to do all he can to make sure Coleraine are snapping at the heels of those teams above them in the table.
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“It’s a massive challenge. For us, we’ve got to find a way and that’s what we keep saying," he said.
“I look back to 2018 where we lost the league after finishing with 89 points and you need a serious amount of wins to accrue that again.
“The ability for us, realistically now with the way the league lies, it makes it really tough.
“It’s a credit to Larne as they’ve been the best and most consistent team this season and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but the full-time teams are only going to get fitter, stronger and it’ll only get tougher for clubs like us.
“However, I keep saying it to everyone at board level that we’ve got to keep trying to find a way to be in and around these teams and as close to them as possible.
“Before close of play last Saturday, we were 11 points behind Linfield which is four wins and the margins are tiny.
“You look through the season and pick out games that we’ve drawn that we should have won or games we’ve maybe thrown away points.
“You’re trying to be perfect on a Saturday and you almost need to be perfect to get results to try and stay in that mix because of where the standard is at."
The target for the Bannsiders this season is to secure a European place with the end-of-season play-offs foremost in Kearney's mind.
Coleraine head to Glentoran on Saturday afternoon with the Bannsiders boss admitting he may be forced to shuffle his squad again.
"We still want to remain competitive in these games but we've got to keep our eye on the big one which is the play-off at the end," said Kearney.
"It's important we use these games to get players who need to be topped up and also we get the good performances we want.
“I’m not saying it’s Russian roulette at the minute but the last three or four games has been lining up with whatever bodies we have available.
“We are lining up with people who aren’t carrying niggles so we are going into the play-offs at the right level."
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