Paddy McLaughlin was full of praise for his Cliftonville side after they blew Coleraine away in a blistering opening before running out 4-2 winners at the Showgrounds.
Rory Hale's quick-fire double had the Reds two up inside nine minutes with second half goals from Ryan Curran and Joe Gormley making the points safe.
"We came out of the blocks really sharp," said McLaughlin.
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"We played on the front foot almost as soon as the whistle went, which is good.
"We knew we had to come out and stamp our authority on the game.
"We played with that authority throughout the first half.
"Maybe in the last five or ten minutes we sat off a bit and Coleraine got back into the match.
"But I think we managed the game really well in the second half, we were clinical when we broke and ruthless in front of goal.
"Obviously they brought it back to 3-2 and they had nothing to lose as they went for it, but we saw there were a couple of gaps in the backline so that's why we put Joe in.
"We were hoping that he could finish the game off for us and that's what he did, we all know he's clinical and scores goals.
"There was a big crowd here, and they've been playing well with a lot of attacking threat, so we knew it was never going to be over at 2-0 or 3-1 either.
"We knew it was going to go until the last couple of minutes, and that proved to be the case.
"They had to take chances and leave gaps as there's no difference in losing 3-2 or 4-2.
"We knew they were going to gamble so we counteracted it by throwing on a striker who grabbed us the crucial finishing goal."
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