Soccer

Cliftonville boss has sympathy for Linfield - but relief for the rest of the Irish League

Cliftonville are set to be without summer signing Stephen Mallon against Dungannon Swifts today due to a quad injury.
Cliftonville are set to be without summer signing Stephen Mallon against Dungannon Swifts today due to a quad injury. Cliftonville are set to be without summer signing Stephen Mallon against Dungannon Swifts today due to a quad injury.

SYMPATHY - and relief. Cliftonville boss Paddy McLaughlin truly felt for his Linfield counterpart David Healy and his Blues players after they missed out on a prestigious and profitable place in the Europa Conference League group stages.

However, the Reds manager also acknowledged that progress might have made the four-in-a-row Danske Bank Irish Premiership champions utterly unstoppable on the domestic scene.

"I was bitterly disappointed for David and his boys – they should be proud of their performance, proud of their campaign. They fully deserved to go through, their performance was unbelievable – created chances, looked the dominant side, everything that you would want in a team…

"They should be proud of themselves because they carried the flag for the league really well.

"I think David is one of the gentlemen of the game. He's been really successful with Linfield but that would have been his biggest achievement, I think, getting to the group stages of a European competition. To have that taken away from him, and from the players, with just 30 seconds to go is really devastating."

Yet the Derryman was honest enough to admit that Linfield's loss in the penalty shoot-out against Latvians Rigas FS was a let-off for the Solitude side and the rest of the Irish League:

"It's daunting to think what a three million euro boost would have done for Linfield, given what they already have and the advantages they already have.

"From a football perspective, not a personal perspective, the rest of us are probably all glad that they didn't go through because we didn't need them strengthening even more than what they already have."

McLaughlin also reckons that Linfield might suffer for some time as a consequence of Thursday night's drama, saying: "I'm sure they'll bounce back but it could well take a while because they were all geared to go through, and rightly so, then that was wiped away."

He is optimistic that his Reds side will again challenge for the title this season, having ended up just a point behind at the end of the last campaign.

However, he feels that this season could have more than two teams competing in the final run-in

"Other clubs have strengthened well, so it'll be really competitive. At the turn of the year there were three or four teams in with a realistic chance of winning the league and then as we got closer to the finishing line one or two teams dropped off.

"I don't think that will be the case this year. I think it'll go to the wire this season and it won't be just two teams. It could well be three, four, even five teams involved, all with a realistic chance of winning the league."

Although he's happy with his summer transfer business, Cliftonville might yet make another move in the transfer market.

Injuries to outstanding left-back Levi Ives (broken foot) and new midfielder Stevie Mallon – the latter having gone off in the midweek win at Ballymena with a quad problem – mean that the Reds may be seeking someone for their left flank.

"We might need to sign someone else," agreed McLaughlin, "but we'll only sign players that we feel are going to strengthen the group. We have good young players coming through so unless we can improve what we already have we won't go into the transfer market.

"With a full squad we're really strong ourselves, but we can't afford too many more injuries or we'd be stretched, so we'll have to keep an eye on who's available."

This afternoon Cliftonville welcome bottom-of-the-table Dungannon Swifts to north Belfast. The Tyrone team lost their league opener 5-1 at nearby Seaview against Crusaders, and have since suffered two home defeats, 2-0 by Ballymena and 1-0 against Glentoran in midweek.

The latter did only come via a controversial late penalty, and McLaughlin knows the Swifts can play – but that also makes them enjoyable opponents:

"It's always a good game because they play some brilliant football – Dean [Shiels] has got them doing the right things, getting the ball down and playing, which is something we try to do ourselves.

"It's a fixture you can plan for playing a football match. That's not always the case, some teams are aggressive and 'in your face'. Dungannon are very dangerous and have been unlucky – their performances definitely didn't deserve the results they ended up with."

That's how football can be – as Linfield know all too well.

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HAD the fixture schedulers planned it they could hardly have picked a more painful fixture for Linfield following the excruciating agony of their exit on penalties from the Europa Conference League on Thursday night.

It's not a long journey tomorrow, but the Blues must take on the opponents who inflicted one of the most embarrassing defeats in the club's illustrious history, Carrick Rangers, who won the 1976 Irish Cup Final as a second tier team.

No result, however, has ever been more costly to Linfield than their shootout loss to Rigas FS, which meant missing out on more than £2m in participation funding from Uefa had they reached the Europa Conference League's group stage. That amount of money would have been game-changing, not only for David Healy's men but for the entire Irish League.

Linfield will still be expected to maintain their 100 per cent domestic record, having beaten Portadown 4-0 and then won 3-1 at Newry City, both also Sunday games.

Yet Carrick won't be easily overcome, after defeating newly-promoted Newry 2-1 and then only losing 3-2 at Cliftonville, before going down 4-2 at home to early pace-setters Coleraine in midweek.

This afternoon's only other Premiership match pits Newry against Crusaders at the Showgrounds.

The border club are likely to find themselves in a battle to avoid relegation with Dungannon Swifts and Portadown, and perhaps Carrick, while the Crues will be aiming to be in the title mix.

Newry lost their opener, 2-1 away to Carrick, then went down 3-1 at home to Linfield. Today is an opportunity to break their duck and move above their relegation rivals in terms of points. The Crues did stuff the Swifts 5-1, but then lost 3-1 at Glentoran and only beat Portadown 2-1 at Seaview on Tuesday night, so Stephen Baxter's side will have to up their performances.