Danske Bank Premiership: Cliftonville 1 Ballymena United 0
TOP of the league, a home win against tough opponents, your closest title rival unexpectedly dropping precious points: weekends don’t get much better than that if you’re a football fan.
However, while understandably delighted, Cliftonville manager Paddy McLaughlin is trying to keep things in perspective for the new Danske Bank Premiership leaders ahead of a trying winter period.
“It was a good weekend for us, surely,” admitted McLaughlin after Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Ballymena United, which coincided with Coleraine’s shock 3-1 defeat at Warrenpoint.
“Obviously, first and foremost, getting our own result, it was important to try to maintain the good run that we’re on. We’re not conceding goals and we’re winning games, so that was our priority going into Saturday.
“When we heard Coleraine had dropped points, it was obviously a bonus, but it’ll happen throughout season. There’ll be weekends where we’ll drop points, there’ll be weekends where other teams will drop points. It’s going to be like that, the league’s that competitive.”
Ruaidhrí Donnelly’s exquisite second-half strike was enough to seal all three points at Solitude and make it seven league wins on the bounce for the Reds. With a feel-good factor surging through the club, the manager is keen to spread the credit as widely as possible.
“Some of the play from the boys has been superb,” McLaughlin added.
“Some of the patience and awareness and keeping the ball under pressure and keeping possession and dominating the game has been excellent. Yesterday, the finish was a bit of class from Ruaidhrí. I’ve said that before about him that he’s got that ability in his locker to produce something from nothing.
“He’d two defenders closing him down inside the box and he’s got the ability to beat the two of them and find the far corner, which is probably the only place he could’ve found to score a goal.
“It’s all sort of coming together at the one time. We’re working really hard right across the pitch, we’re keeping clean-sheets at the back and the boys up front have been brilliant for us, scoring goals against good defenders and good teams.
“Being a defender, a clean-sheet’s obviously pleasing because I know what it means for defenders and goalkeepers. They’ve all been super, the boys who’ve come on, the boys who’ve been out of the team and come in, they’re all in it together and they’re all pulling in the one direction and it’s important that we maintain that.”
With Glentoran next up in Wednesday night’s County Antrim Shield semi-final before Saturday’s trip to Larne, McLaughlin is keenly aware he will need to squeeze everything possible from his squad before the new year.
“We’ve a squad of 22 players and every one of the 22 has started fixtures and we’re not even halfway through the season,” he said.
“We’ve got some good young players coming through as well. We’ve got the likes of Thomas Maguire and Odhrán Casey - all these players at 17, 18, 19 years-of-age are the future of the club, so maybe sometime in the near future they can get the call and it’s up to them then to come in and try and stay in the team.”
Elsewhere on Saturday, Linfield put three past Institute at the Brandywell to keep their own title push on course, while Larne beat Dungannon Swifts 1-0 at Stangmore Park.
