Europa League play-off semi-final: Cliftonville v Glenavon (tonight, Solitude, 7.45pm)
CLIFTONVILLE must show “resilience” if they are come through tonight’s Europa League play-off semi-final against Glenavon with a win, according to caretaker manager Tommy Breslin.
Two-time title winning manager Breslin stepped back into the breach for the Reds following the shock departure of Gerard Lyttle to Sligo Rovers last month, and he is relatively happy with what he has seen from the squad since.
“The players’ response has been excellent since I’ve come in,” said Breslin, who won the Irish League title with Cliftonville in both 2012-13 and 2013-14.
“We trained three times last week and all our preparation work is done ahead of the Glenavon game. Paul Finnegan is suffering from a sore ankle but, apart from that, we’ve a squad of 20 to pick from on Monday, so it’s up to me now to pick the right team for the job.
“It wasn’t an ideal scenario the way I stepped in, but the players can’t be faulted for their response and they’ve all put the effort in ahead of the play-offs.”
Cliftonville ended their league season on a sour note, with Linfield winning 3-1 at Solitude to clinch the Danske Bank Premiership title, but Breslin didn’t see a lot wrong with the Reds in their previous outing.
“You have to give credit to Linfield for the way they ended the season,” added the caretaker boss, “their momentum was something else and you could see that in the Irish Cup final on Saturday.”
“But the way we approached that game was extremely encouraging. We performed very well in the first-half, we were leading at half-time, but it just wasn’t to be.”
Cliftonville lost their last five games in the Premiership run-in, allowing Ballymena – who play Dungannon Swifts in tonight’s other play-off semi-final – to leap frog them into fourth place in the table, a dismal run which included a 3-1 loss to tonight’s opponents Glenavon.
However, Breslin sees no clear favourite among the four teams competing for a place in European competition next season: “Dungannon went on a wonderful run towards the end of the league, but they also finished seventh in the table,” he added.
“Ballymena can be very good on their day, but they’re also very capable of losing. As for ourselves and Glenavon, we’ve probably both had disappointing seasons compared to the aspirations we would have had at the start of the season.
“Gary [Hamilton, Glenavon manager] has been mixing and matching his players and he’s done well out of it. We’ve both been Jekyll and Hyde-like side this season. On the night, it will depend a lot on who gets the rub of the green.”
But while Breslin was more than upbeat about the side he is stewarding towards their summer holidays, he did have a word of warning for them.
“There’s no doubt there’s ability there in this squad, but if we go a goal down or things aren’t going our way, what we need to show is resilience, and we haven’t been showing that at times recently.
“I’ve said to the players that we need to treat this like two cup finals – well, one cup final first and we’ll see what happens – but if we do that, then we’ll not be far away from our goal.
“The spirit and determination they’ve been showing in training has been brilliant, it’s now time to transfer that onto the pitch.”
In tonight’s other semi-final, Ballymena host Dungannon at the Showgrounds, with a 7.45pm kick-off.
