Coleraine ignoring outside noise - Cooper

Cooper netted 19 goals for title-winning Linfield last season

Coleraine forward Joel Cooper said his side will not be distracted by talk from outside the club labelling them as title favourites this year.

Cooper, who arrived in the summer from Linfield, scored the winner on his Bannsiders debut to help them edge out Larne 1-0 at the Coleraine Showgrounds.

And the 29-year-old said that his side are focused on improving on last season's fifth place finish first before entertaining any talk of them challenging for the Gibson Cup

"A lot of it is outside stuff, people want to talk, and other teams want to put us into it [title contention] to take pressure off themselves," he told BBC Sport NI.

"We're only at the start of where we want to get to so we're focusing on bonding as a group and improving on last year. We finished 30 points behind Linfield last year, so our aim is to get closer."

Cooper, who scored 19 goals to help Linfield to the league title last season was delighted to net a late winner for Coleraine after missing a chance minutes before.

"It's a nice one to win the game. I had a chance before that I should have scored, and I thought that was my moment gone but the pass from Declan [McManus] was quality and I just had to step onto it and hit it, and I was glad it hit the net," he added.

"To win like that will give us confidence going forward and I think we deserved that win."