Kincaid demands focus on the league with semi-final approaching

A mid-table finish all but safely secured, Kincaid could be forgiven for putting all his eggs in the Cup basket but he is demanding his side strive for as good a finish in Championship One as possible.

They continue that campaign by hosting third-placed Larne at New Grosvenor on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).

“To be honest, I’m not even thinking about the semi-final yet,” said Kincaid.

“I’m more concerned about Larne at the minute. We’ve spoken to the players about going all out to finish as high as we can and this weekend’s game is very important for us.

“Getting a result against them at the minute would be very impressive because it’s going to be a very difficult game. “

Although Kincaid will be without the suspended Bradley Morton, the boss will have a stronger squad to choose from this week.

“We have Joe McDonnell and Darren Nixon back again and Kieran O’Connor will hopefully be available too.

“It could well be a bit of a selection headache with the other guys back in. It’s better that way than having a lot of guys missing.”

Despite Morton’s red card, Distillery claimed a comfortable 2-0 victory over Knockbreda last week thanks to two stunning strikes from Artur Kopyt. After curling a superb first into the top corner from 20 yards, he rifled in an even better second from all of 40 yards out.

“Artur has come on leaps and bounds recently,” said Kincaid. “His first goal was a smashing effort but the second was something else.

“If it had been scored in England, you would never hear the end of it.

“It was a very good win. We didn’t play particularly well, not as well as we did against Carrick but that’s football. We deserved to get the three points off Carrick and we didn’t get them. This week we didn’t play as well and we came away with the victory.”

Distillery are currently sitting sixth in the Championship One league table.