Danske Bank Irish Premiership: Larne v Cliftonville (tonight, Inver Park, 7.45pm)
DESPITE losing on penalties to Linfield, the name on everybody’s lips around Cliftonville was Sean Moore.
Still on the cusp of the Reds first team, the 17-year-old won his first senior start in Tuesday night’s Co Antrim Shield quarter-final and showed glimpses of his incredible talent.
Cliftonville boss Paddy McLaughlin will find it hard to leave the youngster out ahead of tonight’s league clash with league leaders Larne at Inver Park, if only for his nerveless spot-kick in the shoot-out against the Blues.
Cliftonville’s Head of Academy Marc Smyth has watched Moore’s trajectory since he arrived at Solitude as a 13-year-old from local club St Mary’s.
“Sean is the most level-headed kid you’d meet,” said Smyth. “And he doesn’t feel pressure. What he did with his penalty, he didn’t even touch the ball. Fynn Talley, the Cliftonville goalkeeper, put the ball on the spot. Sean didn’t go up and replace the ball, just chipped the keeper.”
Smyth credits the work of reserve team assistants Liam McStravick and Kris Watson for nurturing Moore’s raw talent when he joined the club and is unsurprised by his graduation to first team duty.
“Last season Sean was exceptional,” said Smyth.
“In fairness, Paddy trusts the young players. I pushed him to Paddy and within a week Paddy says: ‘You’re not getting him back’. He’s super in training and he’s been with the first team for six months to a year now. And now he’s full-time with me at our Academy in Jordanstown...
“We went really young with the reserves last season and it is funny how things just fall in your lap. I watched a reserve game and I didn’t think he was ready defensively to step up, but these are the advantages of overseeing everything at the club: I turned up to an U18 game and [coach] Ryan Catney played Sean at left wing and he scored four goals in the game. That was a Eureka moment where we said: ‘We’ll try him left wing.’
Asked how far he feels Moore can go in the game, Smyth said: “You always have to be cautious with young players but I firmly believe he can be anything he wants to be.
“He can play at the very, very top. He’s forced Paddy’s hand to start him [against Linfield] and he’s forcing his hand to keeping his shirt and you can’t ask any more from a young kid.
“The reserve team Sean was playing in was a really good group in terms of attitude: good manners, ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’ and a willingness to work.
“He’s a good family around him and he’s a good support network around him. I genuinely feel that Sean can be anything he wants to be.
Meanwhile, Larne boss Tiernan Lynch says his players must embrace being top of the table and start acting like one of the top teams in the Irish Premiership.
The Inver Park men lead the way at the top by one point from Glentoran and Clifonville with the Reds able to leapfrog tonight’s hosts if they can record their sixth league win out of nine.
"Is being top something we're going to embrace and enjoy, or is it going to something that feels like the weight of the world on our shoulders?" said Lynch.
“If it’s going to be the weight of the world on our shoulders then we’re not going to do anything. We’re never going to be one of those top teams, we’re always going to follow Linfield or Glentoran or Cliftonville.
"Linfield have been on top for I don’t know how many years because they handle that pressure and turn it into a privilege. We have to start thinking like a top of the table team if we want to achieve anything.”
Elsewhere, Glentoran meet crosstown rivals Linfield in the other Premiership clash this evening. Both 7.45pm.
