Irish Premiership: Dungannon Swifts v Cliftonville (today, Stangmore Park, 3pm)
HAD Ryan Curran taken a match-winning late chance at Windsor Park on Tuesday night, Cliftonville would have had an opportunity to go joint top (depending on other results) with victory over second-from-bottom Dungannon Swifts this afternoon.
Curran’s shot was saved however and the Reds had to settle for a point which leaves them fourth at the top of the table, five adrift of top dogs Larne who travel to Portadown today. To keep the pressure on the teams above them (Larne, Glentoran and Crusaders) three points are essential and, on paper, Paddy McLaughlin’s side are certainly capable of getting them.
The Reds have lost just twice this season while their opponents have won just one of their 14 games and their dozen losses include a 4-2 defeat at Solitude back in August. Of course, the game isn’t played on paper and McLaughlin insists that only the best will suffice.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to go back up to third,” he said.
“But Dungannon are a really good football side, the way Dean (Shiels) has got them playing is brilliant and it’s great to see young coaches and managers putting their own philosophy on the game.
“His is obviously to play great football and he deserves a lot of credit for that although I’m sure he’s disappointed with results – they don’t reflect the performances and how well they’ve been playing. “So we have to go into the game with guard up and be prepared for a tough game but hopefully it’s a good game because both sides like to get the ball down and play.
“If we go there and work hard and play well we have a great chance to win but a lot of things have to fall into place for that to happen. We have to have the right mentality and work hard against a good footballing side who are extremely dangerous going forward.”
Cliftonville had to come from one-down to beat the Swifts in their last meeting. James Knowles sent the visitors ahead before goals from Ronan Hale and Chris Gallagher had the Reds 2-1 up at half-time. Joe McCready levelled for Dungannon early in the second half but the home side took the points thanks to a Michael Ruddy own goal and a fourth from Chris Curran.
That result was the third in a seven-game winning run from the Reds who go into this afternoon’s game on a five-game unbeaten run that includes three wins followed by draws with Glenavon (last Saturday) and Linfield.
“We’ve got to keep hitting the consistency,” said McLaughlin.
“We’ve got to play like we played at Windsor Park and create the chances we did in every game, it has to be like that the whole time starting at Dungannon.”
Cliftonville will be without Odhran Casey this afternoon. Casey is serving the second of a three-match suspension after he was sent off against Glenavon. McLaughlin says the decision portrayed “the dark side” of the game.
“He stopped a promising attack, nobody is arguing with that, but I thought it was very harsh,” he said.
“He’s the second of our two 19-year-olds (Sean Moore was red-carded against Larne) to have been harshly sent off with a straight red. It’s disappointing for two young lads learning the game but they have to learn the dark side of the game because decisions can be extreme against us but we’ll take it on the chin and move on.”
Today’s fixtures: Linfield v Glenavon, Portadown v Larne (3pm); Newry City v Carrick Rangers (5.30pm)
