Danske Bank Premiership: Larne 1 Cliftonville 2
CLIFTONVILLE manager Paddy McLaughlin says it is ice baths not turkey dinners his players will be sick of the sight of by the time they get their hectic Christmas period over them.
The Reds followed up their St Stephen’s Day win at Crusaders with victory over Larne on Saturday and they will round off their festive program, which began against Coleraine on December 21, against Glenavon on Wednesday hoping to make it 12 points from a possible 12.
Joe Gormley opened the scoring at Inver Park after just 17 seconds before captain Jeff Hughes equalised for the home side. It was left to Conor McMenamin to again play the hero as his fourth goal in three games moved Cliftonville three points clear at the top of the Danske Bank Premiership.
While manager McLaughlin is delighted with the string of wins his team have put together – two of them against title rivals – he is also concerned about the impact playing four games in 12 days has on Irish League players.
“It is a busy schedule in football terms for everybody and it’s definitely too much to be asking Irish League players to play on a Thursday and then play on a Saturday because it’s almost impossible,” the Derry man said.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of sore bodies today across the Irish League, not just at Cliftonville. I’m sure there’s a lot of players waking up this morning with aches and pains all over their bodies because of the demands that have been made of them this week.
“I think it might need to be looked at. There was a request put in that yesterday’s games were held back until Monday, but it was shot down. It’s unrealistic to expect boys to play but, to be fair, you have to give credit to our boys and the Larne boys, they played at a high tempo and it was a frantic game. I don’t know where the two sets of players got their energy from because it was played at a high intensity.”
Part of the collateral damage of the Christmas program are club’s training regimes as focus is placed on making sure players have recovered in time for the next game.
“I’m a wee bit worried about going into training tomorrow night because I’m not expecting too many bodies to be fit to train after the bruising period we’ve had,” McLaughlin added.
“We haven’t trained properly in about two weeks and we’ll not train [properly] again this week because it’s all about recovery sessions in between and I’m sure our boys are sick looking at ice baths and foam rollers because it’s all they’ve been at the last two weeks and it’s probably all they’ll do for the next week or two.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s game at Solitude with Glenavon, McLaughlin has injury concerns over a couple of key players and is considering utilising his squad to allow recovery time for those feeling the worst effects of the last 10 days.
“We probably will be missing a couple of players,” he said.
“Joe Gormley has put in such a shift over the last three games, he was cramping up badly yesterday in the game – both hamstrings were tight – so we have to protect him. We have to protect our assets as well try to get the best out of them.
“Another player who’s probably struggling is Ryan Curran, who’s had a calf injury the last couple of games and he’s been patched up just to get through them.
“We’ve a good squad, we’re not high in numbers but we’re high in quality, so we can trust the boys to go in when called upon. Maybe it’s time now to rest a few boys and let them recover from such a hectic schedule.”
