Soccer

Gray wants all three points at Windsor Park

CONFIDENT: Barry Gray believes that his Cliftonville side can carry their good form into today's match with Linfield Photo Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press
CONFIDENT: Barry Gray believes that his Cliftonville side can carry their good form into today's match with Linfield Photo Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press CONFIDENT: Barry Gray believes that his Cliftonville side can carry their good form into today's match with Linfield Photo Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press

Danske Bank Premiership: Linfield v Cliftonville (today, Windsor Park, 3pm)

THE Christmas schedule always throws up some blockbuster encounters, but this year’s festive fixture list has left Irish League fans especially spoilt.

In the four rounds of matches - that started last night and will end on January 2 - teams currently in the top six will face off on eight separate occasions.

Cliftonville will be involved in four of those games as they are away to Linfield today before they meet Crusaders, Coleraine and Ballymena United in quick succession.

Manager Barry Gray has been keen to stress that this busy period won’t make or break their season, but it can’t be far off.

Getting off to a good start is essential and they will be determined to leave Windsor Park with something this afternoon as defeat would allow the Blues to move above them in the table.

It’s the Reds who bring the better form into the game though as they chase an eighth straight league win, and Gray admitted that they have their eyes on all three points.

“It’s one that we’ll face up to and, with the form we’ve been in lately, we will be going there to try and win,” he told the Cliftonville website.

“Yes, Linfield are Linfield and you have to respect that, but we prefer to focus on ourselves and try to use our strengths.”

While Linfield’s form guide has been pretty good – they have won three of their last four games – there have been some less than impressive performances recently.

Chief amongst those was last weekend’s 3-3 draw with Warrenpoint Town at Windsor Park when the Blues were second best for long periods.

Linfield boss David Healy said he was “embarrassed” by the performance, and his counterpart Gray is not reading too much into it.

“Linfield away is always tough – whatever form you are in goes out the window as this is an isolated game between two top sides. We’re just hopeful we can go to Windsor Park and get the win.”

Elsewhere today, Glentoran will be hoping to avoid a fourth straight league defeat as they travel to the Loughshore Hotel Arena to face Carrick Rangers.

The home side have proved something of a sticky wicket for Gary Haveron’s side this year with Rangers leaving the Oval with a point in the league in August and a spot in the next round of the League Cup back in October.

They have only won twice in 12 games since that victory though and are in a real slump currently.

Glenavon will attempt to bounce back from last weekend’s 4-3 reverse at the hands of Crusaders as they are away to Dungannon Swifts.

The Swifts have had a dry December when it comes to goals, drawing blanks against Linfield, Coleraine and Ards – but their opponents have been conceding regularly enough in recent times and they may rediscover their scoring tough.

Ards, meanwhile, will host basement club Ballinamallard United.

The ‘Mallards still have only one league win to their name this season as their survival hopes continue to diminish.