Tennent’s Irish Cup semi-final: Linfield v Lurgan Celtic
(Saturday, Windsor Park, 3pm)
LURGAN CELTIC manager Collie Malone may have unearthed a goalkeeper ahead of Saturday’s Irish Cup semi-final showdown with Linfield.
After making several failed attempts to free up regular ‘keeper Conor McCorry, who is suspended for his red card against Annagh United last weekend, Malone has had to look at other options.
The club’s reserve team ‘keeper Jamie McAtavey is currently nursing a broken wrist and the only other registered net-minder they have on their books is a 16-year-old who has played just one game at adult level.
Frustrated by the perceived intransigence of the football authorities, Malone has mulled over his goalkeeping options and will almost certainly be forced to play an outfield player in goal for the biggest game in the club’s history.
Top goalscorer Raymond Fitzpatrick and the manager’s son Dale have volunteered to go in goal - but Malone could opt for fringe first-team player Colm Toland: “A few boys have put their names forward who would want to have a go at it,” Malone said.
“We’ll do a few drills and we’ll talk about it between ourselves, but it’s looking like an outfield player.”
The Celtic boss added: “There’s a guy called Colm Toland who plays for us and does goals for his Gaelic club [Eire Og in Craigavon], so that might be our best option. I only found that out this week that he actually plays in goal in GAA.
“We signed him at Christmas and he’s came off the bench a few times for us.”
Malone is reluctant to play Fitzpatrick - the team’s quarter-final goal hero against Portadown - in nets: “Given the fact that Raymond Fitzpatrick has been our leading goalscorer for the last number of years, for him to go into nets would take away our greatest goal threat and it would obviously affect our performance.
“Raymond would play wherever I asked him to - that’s the sort of fella he is.”
Malone has had to come to terms with the goalkeeping crisis and the frustration he feels towards the authorities - but he hopes to turn the apparent negative into a positive ahead of Saturday afternoon’s David-versus-Goliath encounter.
“Everything is stacked against us. I will be telling the players what’s been happening all week and that should serve as a rallying call for the boys for them to go out and give it their best shot," he added.
“It’ll certainly be used to build the team up before the game.”
Since the semi-final draw was made, Lurgan Celtic made two requests for the players and management team to be allowed to walk around Windsor Park to survey the surroundings, but both were turned down.
Instead, Malone brought his 20-man squad and backroom team members to Windsor to watch Linfield’s recent league game against Ballinamallard United. They paid at the turnstiles, costing the club £260, and they all sat in the Ballinamallard end.
While impressed with Linfield’s pace up front and their midfield metronome Jamie Mulgrew, Malone believes Celtic can cause their hosts trouble: “We draw our strength from our team spirit,” Malone said.
“Off the field and on the field, our players are very close. They trust each other, they trust the person to the left and right of them and the person behind them. That would be our main strength.
“Obviously, we have a few players that can change games - Josh Barton, Aaron Haire and Raymond Fitzpatrick - there’s always a goal in them. We believe we will have opportunities to score but obviously Linfield will have the bulk of the play and the bulk of the chances. But we believe we’re capable of creating chances and if we can take them and ride our luck, who knows."
Malone acknowledged the threat of Paul Smyth whom, he says, is “very, very quick”, and adding that “a lot goes through Mulgrew” in midfield: “We’ll just break the game down, get through the first 20 minutes and so on and hope we don’t concede heavily early on,” he said.
“They’ve a few recognised players and we’ve talked about them and we have players that will do specific jobs to try and nullify the threat that they carry. But the pressure is not on us - it’s on them. They’ve to go out and perform in front of their own fans and sometimes that’s not as easy as people think.”
