We’ll bounce back from cup heartache - Ferguson

The Sky Blues’ hopes of winning the trophy for the first time in a quarter-of-a-century ended with Saturday’s 2-1 defeat by Glenavon.

Although bitterly disappointed at the defeat, the manager is backing his players to come back hungry to go one step further next year.

Ferguson is already turning his thoughts to strengthening his squad ahead of the new campaign, with decisions to be made in the coming weeks on players’ futures and potential new arrivals.

“It’s been a long, hard season since the first of July,” admitted Ferguson.

“We have competed in all the cup competitions, reached two semi-finals and a final.

“We haven’t won anything this season but we have showed progression.

“We have another two years here to try and win trophies which we will try to do.

“Some of the players haven’t played in an Irish Cup final before, others have but it’s a learning curve and how you respond to it.

“We have the nucleus of a decent squad, I feel, but if Saturday’s result had been different, the club would obviously have got much more financially out of it which might have helped in my quest for new players.

“I would like to possibly get another striker in - I’ve made no secret of that.

“But sometimes you have to play the hand you’ve been dealt and we’ll look at how much is left in the budget for next season.”

The manager also hopes for a positive diagnosis on full-back Jim Ervin, who went off inside the opening half-hour of Saturday’s final with suspected knee ligament damage.

“We think it’s possibly medial ligament on the inside of his knee but that is the last match and he will get a bit of time to recover,” added Ferguson.